Another Day in the Office
by FMPtrumpets
Summary: All the times when Tony wasn't acting like himself, or was hurt. And, of course, Gibbs was being a Papabear. Tony-centric.
1. Never Leave a Man Behind

Tag to 'Radio Silence'

_Radio_

* * *

Abby was sitting in front of her computer, biting her lip and trying to decide what to do.

On the one hand, this was serious and Gibbs needed to know. Like, right now. On the other, the team was busy chasing a domestic terrorist cell right now, before they blew up something or somebody important, and the last thing they needed was a distraction from their jobs.

So, did she tell him now, and risk him being distracted and somebody getting hurt... or tell him later, after the terrorists were caught and there was no more danger of distraction-induced injury. Telling him _later_ would probably make him mad at her though. She didn't like it when he was mad at her!

Not that it happened much, but still...

"Hey, Abbs. What ya got?" Gibbs called when he walked in her lab, CafPow in hand.

"Gibbs! I will learn your secret one of these days." She narrowed her eyes at him after a moment of being startled. He only twitched his lips in a small smile before asking again. "Ok, I managed to match one of the voices to the one that called Gator. Voice number eleven, Arthur Hascal." And she obediently went through what she'd found on the current main suspect.

As he left, she decided to wait until the case was solved, and the terrorists were caught before telling him.

It wasn't like she wasn't still having a hard time believing it, anyway.

She knew that they didn't have the most respect for him as their direct superior, but to do this... She never would have thought them capable. She thought that they at least respected him as a friend and fellow agent. Didn't they know just what it was that Tony did for everybody?

Just because she was going to wait, though, didn't mean she couldn't have another team keeping an eye on Tony whenever he left with one of those two. She was pretty sure Balboa's team was on cold cases right now, they had a time to spare. He would be happy to have Tony's back, especially since Tony always had his.

* * *

"Abbs. What's up? Did you find something else about MAH?" It wouldn't be the first time that they thought a case was closed, only for her to find some new evidence after the fact linking their suspect(s) with something bigger. Usually when something like that happened, they ended up passing it on to the director. Sometimes he passed the new information on to Homeland Security, or somebody else who could actually make use of it.

Once in a while, there was nothing that could be done about it at that time, and they ended up taking care of it themselves at a later date, anyway.

However, normally when she found something like that out, she mentioned it to the whole team, she didn't usually call him down to her lab after everyone else was already gone for the night.

He hated cases where terrorism was involved... so. Much. PAPERWORK.

Well, that and the fact that you could never seem to get all of them, they were like rats. Just when you think you have them all, ten more appear.

"Um, not MAH."

"Alright, then what?" He was a little annoyed now, he wanted to go home and find his couch. Whether he actually _slept_ on it or not, now that was a different story.

"Ok, now, I would have said something earlier, but you were chasing terrorists, and I didn't want to distract you. That, and I was having a hard time figuring out what I heard, I just couldn't believe it. That they would do something like... I mean, what if something happened, and Tony got hurt!" She went on a little rant, leaving a very confused, and worried Agent Gibbs to try and make sense of what she was saying.

"Abby. Abby!" He finally yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders. She stopped, startled. "Who did what, and how did it put DiNozzo in danger." He pulled her focus back. Was this why he spotted Jack from Balboa's team discreetly following his team for the last few days?

"Right, ok, so, when I set up the mics for the recording, I set up _all _of them to record. Not just Tony's. Because, what if somebody stopped at the car and started talking to McGee and Ziva, you know? And, well... you're going to have to hear it for yourself." She turned around and pressed a few keys on her keyboard, before hesitantly pushing play, about an hour into the recordings.

_Through the recording, they could hear an echo of Tony's conversations with the neighbors, coming in from the radio._

_"Ugh, how much more of this do we have to listen to?" McGee asked. There was a small grunt of agreement from Ziva._

_After a few more moments of talking on Tony's end, while he tried to get the community members to talk to him, there was an annoyed huff, and then the echo on the recordings, coming in from their comm with Tony, went quiet._

_"Ah, peace and quiet." Ziva said, with a satisfied sigh. _

_"Should have done that a little while ago." McGee muttered._

Gibbs face was full of shock and disbelief. Did they just turn their radio off? On the other recording, Tony was still talking, he made the occasional comment towards his teammates about one of the community residents he saw. On one occasion, he saw a food truck stop by the corner and asked his teammates if they wanted him to stop and bring them something to eat, telling them to text him with their orders if they did. After a few minutes of waiting, Tony said that he was hungry, even if they weren't, and he was getting food before he continued.

Comments that his teammates weren't hearing.

If he'd gotten into trouble... Tony was a smooth talker, but even he couldn't talk himself out of everything.

_"It's amazing how a person can talk so much. Just how much does he like listening to his own voice?" McGee asked her after a while, there was some shuffling, then the crackle of paper came over the mic before the sounds of pages being turned came in from the background._

_"I know. I mean, don't get me wrong, he is a great investigator, and a good agent. But if he would just _talk less." _Ziva exclaimed._

_A snort. "Tell me about it." More page turning._

After a few minutes of listening, where she watched as Gibbs face got darker and darker with rage, she stopped it and skipped to the end.

_There was the sound of a door opening and closing, followed by panting, it sounded to Gibbs like DiNozzo. And it wasn't coming from the car radio, it was coming from DiNozzo's microphone._

_"What happened to you?" That was McGee again._

_"Don't play dumb, you've been hearing everything, and reveling in my suffering." DiNozzo snapped back, out of breath from the running that Gibbs and Abby had heard him doing in his recording. _

(Gibbs was concerned that he sounded so winded, he was very fit, he ran as much as possible if he had the chance, he even competed in the occasional marathon if they weren't busy with a case. His lungs weren't acting up again were they? Ziva and McGee didn't know it, but he never quite recovered from the plague, and now carried an inhaler because of it. He'd barely passed his health physical and field requirements in order to stay employed at NCIS after getting out of the hospital, let alone to remain a field agent. In fact, Ducky had seriously considered calling Dr. Pitt to check on him considering the problems he was having with his voice.)

_"No, actually, we haven't been listening for the last couple of hours." McGee said uncaringly, and they heard a page being turned._

_"One could only listen to your voice for so long. Did you talk to everyone?" Ziva replied dryly._

_There was a moment's pause before DiNozzo answered that yes, he had talked to everyone, and then asked for a drink._

"Alright, that's enough." Gibbs finally gritted out. He was well aware of the problems Tony had had with his voice for the rest of the case. (It had made for an interesting attempt at questioning the suspect, that was for sure.)

He didn't care about that, though. No, what he cared about, was that DiNozzo lost his voice,_ doing his job_ and questioning suspects. He'd had to use his inhaler, even. And he hated using it, he avoided it as much as he could. In fact, he would happily burn the thing if he didn't know that he would be sorry to need it, and no longer have it.

All the while, those two were sitting in a car, reading magazines, and _not _doing their jobs.

Their job was simple, be there as back-up in case somebody made Tony. If something like that happened... they never would have known until it was too late to help.

He glared at the screen for another moment, then reached out to grab a flashdrive from the drawer beside the computer and handed it to Abby, who wordlessly copied the files and handed it back. Without another word, he stormed out of the lab, and went straight to his desk (after a detour to the break room, where he pulled _his_ coffee out of his hiding place, he wasn't drinking that break room crap).

He wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.

* * *

At eight in the morning, roughly a half hour before the team usually came in for the day (on days they didn't already have a case), Gibbs stood in the middle of the bullpen, coffee in one hand and folders in the other.

(It was at times like this, when he needed to do something over Vance's head, that he was glad for his status within the agency. What most didn't realize, was that he was the third in command of NCIS.* When the Director or his Deputy weren't available (which seemed to be all the time), he was in charge. It gave him quite a bit of leeway sometimes. Even if he absolutely hated having to be in charge (the paperwork!) when the Director was away at conferences or various other meetings. (Which is exactly why he turned down the promotion and stayed as the leader of the MCRT when Jenny died and Vance was promoted, which meant they needed a new Deputy Director).)

Sitting on the floor by his feet, were two boxes, each full of McGee and Ziva's personal belongings.

The other agents that were walking by, merely blinked before hurrying their pace to get out of the way. They didn't know what was going on, or what the two MCRT agents had done, but they did not want to be in the same room as Gibbs when it all blew up. Or, at the very least, safely behind their desks. Only Balboa's team stayed nearby, they were the only ones that knew what the other two had done.

When the team finally came in, all at the same time for once instead of trickling in like usual (he was surprised and concerned Tony was coming in right on time, and not already there. He was usually at least a half hour early, if he didn't end up sleeping behind his desk after staying late doing paperwork. The last case must have taken more out of him then he or Ducky realized), they stopped in shock once they saw their boss and where he was standing. All joking and bickering stopped.

"Boss?" Tony asked cautiously. He was the only one who was ever brave enough to talk to the Boss when he was in his moods. It didn't escape anyone's notice that Tony's was the only desk _not _packed up. "Is something wrong?" He slowly dropped his bag behind his desk, and then just stood there, glancing between his teammates and Gibbs warily.

In response, he pointed to Tony's desk, then motioned towards the plasma. "DiNozzo." Tony glanced at his desk and saw the flashdrive sitting on top of his keyboard. Glancing at his boss, he plugged it in and pressed a few keys to switch the file to the plasma from the computer. He knew that the Boss would have already had it in and up... if the Boss knew how to do it.

Ziva and McGee paled slightly when they heard what was being played, although mostly they were confused. Where did this come from, and why was Gibbs so angry? Yeah, they probably shouldn't have turned off the radio, but it wasn't like anything happened. The other agents nearby who were listening in, and pretending not to, were listening with wide eyes.

Once most of the talking on Ziva and McGee's end was over, Gibbs spoke again. "Skip to the last five minutes."

Tony glanced at his teammates and did as ordered. Whispers started flying around the floor when the other agents heard how uncaring the two sounded on the tape. Tony just sat there, he already knew they had turned him off, and was more hurt that they would do that than anything else. And, a little betrayed. He trusted them to be there if something happened, but if something had happened the other day... they wouldn't have been there. Although he was a little surprised that something was being done about it, and so publicly too.

Gibbs was a big supporter of not airing the teams dirty laundry for the whole agency to know about. If it happened within the team, then it stayed within the team, simple as that.

Once the audio was done playing, the room was dead silent. Even Director Vance, standing up top and leaning over the railing, was stunned silent.

"Rule number one, McGee?" Gibbs asked quietly.

"Don't screw over your partner." He didn't have to ask which rule number one he was talking about.

"Rule number fifteen, David?"

She flinched slightly, he only called her by her last name when he was very, _very _angry with her. "Always work as a team."

"What was that?" He asked next, pointing to the plasma.

There was silence while they looked at each other, slightly confused. When an answer finally came, it was Tony. "That was screwing over your partner, and not working with the whole team." He said quietly, sitting at his desk.

Gibbs just looked at him, and the look on his face let him know, he wasn't too happy with Tony at the moment either. But, he also wasn't angry to the point of packing his desk like he did with them. "Correct. Which leads me to another question, DiNozzo!" He barked.

"Yes, Boss?" Came the automatic response.

"Why didn't you say anything when you three got back from Royal Woods?" He demanded.

"Rule number one, Boss." Tony knew, that if Gibbs found out, they would be in serious trouble, how serious, well... he wasn't willing to find out. So, he didn't throw them under the bus. He also didn't really think that anything would really be done. Gibbs gave him another Look to let him know that the Boss knew he was holding back, and Tony knew that the Boss probably knew what it was, too.

"Now for a question of my own, what is department, no... what is the first rule and probably most important policy of law enforcement and military alike? But especially, of this agency." Vance asked, coming down from his spot, to stand on the stairs.

"Never leave a man behind." Gibbs muttered, almost too quietly for others to hear. The man was a Marine through and through.

"Always have backup nearby or otherwise in place. And an escape plan if needed." Tony added, thinking back to his numerous undercover ops over the years.

Vance nodded. "Always have backup, always back your partner up. Even in situations where it doesn't seem like it will be needed." He narrowed his eyes at two of his most promising agents.

"I think a stake out where we are searching for domestic terrorists counts as backup being needed." Gibbs said in a dangerously quiet voice. Ziva and McGee paled, they hadn't even considered that.

They just saw the nice neighborhood, and the friendly neighbors. The nice homes and the appearance of the area. They forgot to look at what they were doing there and let the peaceful atmosphere lull them into a false sense of security.

They looked at each other in horrified realization. What had been a harmless little joke, petty perhaps, but a joke nonetheless, had been a huge mistake.

One that could have gotten Tony seriously injured or killed. And they wouldn't have even known something was wrong until it was too late.

"We have no excuse, other than that we weren't thinking." Ziva said quietly, face red. She was ashamed, and feeling quite humiliated to be having this dressing down in the middle of the squad room, with most of the field agents assigned to the Navy Yard present.

"Ya think, David?" Gibbs asked sarcastically.

"Does that mean what it looks like?" McGee asked after a moment of silence. He gestured towards the boxes at his bosses feet.

"Don't know, what do you think it means?" Gibbs asked, tilting his head to the side.

"That we're either fired, or reassigned somewhere else." Ziva answered.

Gibbs only response was to hand over the folders in his hand. Ziva and McGee glanced at each other before cautiously opening them.

"Three week unpaid suspension? Followed by three months mandatory FLETC training." Ziva summarized after examining the papers inside. Tony didn't know whether to be relieved that they weren't going to lose their jobs over this, or disappointed in Gibbs that that was it (they were both strong assets to the agency, so he would give them one more chance, no matter how much he prefer just kicking them to the curb here and now. If, at the end of this period, they hadn't shaped up, then they would be gone. Of course, they would also need to find somebody willing to even work with them at all, they would not be coming back to his team, that was for certain).

"Job status to be determined upon completion of training, depending on what the instructors report. Final decision will be up to myself, Leon, and Tony. All three of us will have to agree." Gibbs finished, explaining the part that wasn't in the folders. Tony blinked, that was actually a pretty good decision... "Let me be clear right now, the _only _reason I'm not taking your badges right now is because Tony was lucky, and nothing happened." He pierced them with his stare, and was only a little satisfied when they fidgeted.

It was then that his phone rang, and he answered with an annoyed, "Gibbs." After a moment, he hung up and sighed. "DiNozzo, grab your gear. Dead Petty Officer." He grabbed his gun and badge out of his desk and headed for the elevator without another word, leaving Tony to scramble after him, grabbing his bag along the way. He never even got a chance to put his own gun and badge in his desk drawer.

"I want to see you two in my office, five minutes. That should be plenty of time to take your personal items down to your cars." Vance said, and went back upstairs after gesturing over Balboa and his team to escort them around. He would have to have a conversation with Gibbs about their punishment at a later time, right now he needed to have a little chat with the two, and secure their badge and gun in his own desk. He would hold onto them until the final decision was made in roughly four months time.

He thought better than this of these two, he couldn't believe they just left their partner to hang like that.

* * *

In the truck, it was silent for most of the trip while the agents thought about what just happened.

"You didn't say anything, because you didn't think anything would be done about it." Gibbs said, finally breaking the silence. "Because, after all these years, you still don't see yourself as worth it. What is rule five?" He asked suddenly.

"You don't waste good." Tony answered promptly. "McGee and Ziva are pretty good, though." He finished.

"Eh, they are good. That's true. After that display, they can go be good somewhere else." Gibbs said, there was a note of finality in his voice, and Tony got the hint to not argue the point. Instead he let himself enjoy the comfortable silence and warmth in his chest.

When they arrived at the crime scene twenty minutes later, in silence, it was to find that the one to call it in to the Navy Yard had left out a few very important details.

It wasn't just one dead officer. It was five.

One of them was an Admiral. Another was a foreign liaison.

Tony and Gibbs just looked at each other, they both wanted this day to end already.

This was going to be a long week...

* * *

Four months later...

"DiNozzo, conference room." Was all Gibbs said when he looked up and saw Vance on the railing above them. Was it really that time? He hadn't expected them until later.

It had been easy enough to slip back into the routine of it just being the two of them, despite the fact it hadn't been just the two of them for roughly six years now, not since he practically forced Kate to join his team and completely railroaded Director Morrow into letting her join the top team, despite her inexperience as an investigator.

During the four months, Tony had stayed in touch with Ziva and McGee. They'd even gone out to lunch a few times when they all had a chance. Somehow, their friendship had deepened since the incident with the radios. Once Tony had gotten over the hurt and betrayal, anyway. They had been angry at first, once the shock of everything wore off, but they eventually got over it once they had more of a chance to think.

Ziva had spent her few weeks on suspension in Israel. Her father had not been impressed when he heard about what happened, and he made sure to set her attitude straight when he noticed she was angry about being punished. Most of her time back in her home country was spent training and going through lectures as a result. McGee's lectures actually came from his grandmother, despite her dislike of anything government related. Being on a stake-out was no time to be playing 'practical jokes' on your partner, especially when it involved cutting off his only form of communication with his back-up.

When they went back to FLETC, they kept their heads down and did what the instructors said, although they did volunteer to hold a brief seminar regarding teamwork. The other trainees... well, lets just say Ziva and McGee stayed together and didn't really get close to any of them. The NCIS grapevine made sure that even the trainees heard what had happened, and knew exactly why two of the top field agents were there.

Tony glanced up at the catwalk, and followed along after his boss dutifully with a sigh. He honestly wasn't looking forward to deciding the fates of two of his friends.

When they walked into the conference room, McGee and Ziva were already sitting there, waiting for them. The Director was getting himself something to drink, and Agent Quinn from FLETC was sitting there as well.

"Quinn, what are you doing here?" Gibbs asked, not having expected her.

"I was their main training officer this time around." She answered, waving a hand dismissively. "I wanted to be here to clarify anything in my reports." That, and she just wanted to get away from the trainees for a little while. One of them, especially... "And, how long until you finally accept one of the Probies I send your way?"

Gibbs gave a half-smirk. "When you send one that fits with the team." Tony went to get himself some water in an effort to hide his own smirk from the Boss.

Honestly, one would think that Quinn would know by now that Gibbs was very, very picky about the people he worked with. The longest lasting Probie she sent them only lasted two weeks. A full week longer than the others she sent him.

Besides, despite her efforts for a little over a year, Gibbs still ended up building his own team, first with strong-arming Kate onto the team, and then letting McGee stick around and finally just approving his transfer to the Navy Yard from Norfolk. Ziva was the only person Gibbs ever had on his team that he did not handpick.

Gibbs, though, knew that Tony would be smirking, and lightly head-slapped him when he went to sit down. Tony just grinned innocently at him, knowing what the strength behind his head-slaps meant by now. This was just a small warning for appearances to behave.

"Alright." Leon said, shaking his head fondly at the by-play between two of his most trusted agents. Even if he didn't really like Tony DiNozzo, and took a while to warm up to him. He still hadn't fully warmed up to him. He found him rude and disrespectful, and far too laid-back for this kind of work.

However.

His file was quite impressive for his age. He was highly educated, highly skilled, he was good at his job, and...

Anybody who can successfully deal with working under Leroy Jethro Gibbs for as long as he had, and still be relatively sane and not burned out, had his respect.

The man was well known to have retired several agents who weren't anywhere close to retiring, as well as giving one of his previous SFA's before DiNozzo a stress-induced ulcer. He was very difficult to work with, and notorious for it.

"Let's get started. We all know why we are here?" He checked. He doubted any of them would have forgotten, but it never hurt to make sure.

There was a chorus of 'yes, sir's' from around the table. Three of the voices were slightly more nervous and subdued than the others. Tony was more subdued than anything, he didn't want to risk the close friendship formed after the Incident.

"Alright, I've reviewed the reports from the training instructors, and I am very pleased with what they have to say. Your volunteer seminar was certainly a point in your favor." Vance said, looking at the two of them and nodding his head. "Agent Quinn, do you have anything to add?" He asked.

She shook her head with her lips pursed. "No, they were model students, kept their heads down and completed their work well. If they were green recruits, they honestly would have been the next Probies I sent Gibbs way." She shrugged.

"DiNozzo, Gibbs? Your opinions?" Vance asked his two best field agents, who were glancing over the files right then.

"I think they've learned their lesson." Tony said quietly after a moment, relieved. The reports from FLETC looked good, and they'd had many talks over the last few months, he believed they should have a second chance. He ignored the fact that things could have gone so much worse for him, and chose to focus on the part where it didn't.

Gibbs nodded in agreement with him, "But they're not coming back to my team." He raised an eyebrow. Vance nodded his understanding and turned to McGee and David.

"Well?"

They merely looked at each other.

"We made a mistake, and we know we did. All we can do is apologize again. Hopefully, the trainees take what we said in our seminar to heart, and they don't make the same mistakes." Ziva said quietly. Her father had also forced her to give a similar lecture to Mossad trainees while she was in Israel.

Vance nodded in approval. "Now, Agent McGee, you are medically exempt from being assigned as Agent Afloat on account of your extreme sea-sickness. Agent David, you are not. However, I think being Agent Afloat would be a waste of your skill set." Both of them almost sagged in relief at hearing they weren't being reassigned to Agent Afloat.

They didn't want to be the sole cop on a floating city, population of several hundred to a couple of thousand. That was the last thing they wanted. To hear that Agent Afloat was the first option the Director had thought of...

Ziva, however, recognized the subtle threat for what it was. One more screw-up, and she would be lucky if she was assigned Agent Afloat, if not outright fired.

"However, I was having some difficulties in finding anybody else willing to work with you. Of course, I could just make it an order, but a field agent has to be able to trust the ones around them, and I can't order them to do that. So, for the time being, you two are going to work cold cases. It is my understanding that nobody else was assigned to those since Chris Pacci died and everybody else has just been picking up a few of them in their spare time. Well, now that is your sole duty. Agent David, you may be pulled away from cold cases as needed to run a few... assignments for us." He leaned back to watch their reactions to hearing their new assignment.

Ziva and McGee made a face. Cold cases? They hated it when there was a lull and they had to work cold cases in between doing paperwork. Those were the worst weeks... they didn't say anything, though. They nodded, accepting their assignments gracefully.

Vance nodded, satisfied. "I don't think I have to remind you, Agent McGee, what happened to Agent Pacci, I trust you two will have each others backs, even though the cases are stone cold and seem harmless." He raised an eyebrow, knowing they would get the reference to Royal Woods. The place had seemed harmless, and it was harboring a group that tried to bomb an after party cook-out after a girls softball game. Most of them were parents themselves, which was probably why not all of them were even in on _that_ particular part of the plan, but still.

"Yes, sir. I won't let anything happen to us if I can help it." Ziva said, determined. She didn't know Chris Pacci, didn't know anything about him. She'd never even heard his name before, but clearly something bad had happened to him if everyone else's reactions were anything to go by.

Vance gave them both a long look, then nodded as he liked what he found. "You two can go home for the day, and come back tomorrow, ready to get back to work. I'll have somebody show you to your new desks before you leave." He hesitated. "Let me know if the pranks and hazing start to go too far." He advised. They all knew it was going to happen, federal agents could be so petty and childish sometimes, but he also didn't want them to get hurt because somebody took it too far, which was entirely possible.

Ziva and Tim looked at each other, not sure if they wanted to bother the Director with it if it did get too far.

Any pranks or hazing that happened, would be completely deserved, after all.

* * *

I've read some stories where the two of them were outright fired or convicted because something did happen to Tony. In this, they got off fairly lightly because nothing did happen. They more or less just got a slap on the wrist as a warning, although they were on their last leg. If something like that happened again, then there wouldn't have been any leniency.

*I took this idea from those episodes where Jenny was away at a conference and Cynthia was constantly having to chase him down to get him to finish the paperwork for the day. Every time she was gone, Gibbs seemed to be the one in charge and making sure the agency didn't crash and burn. Also, he leads a lot of operations from MTAC. Also, there has to be some reason why Gibbs can get away with pulling off so much crap all the time. Some of the stuff he gets away with should result in some serious consequences, and nobody seems to care at all.


	2. A Good Day

Tag to 'Hung out to Dry'

What could have happened between Tony being pushed, and going home for the night

* * *

As soon as he landed, Gibbs stripped out of and dropped all his gear and ran towards where he'd seen DiNozzo land. All he could do was hope that Tony's brief lesson the other day had been enough.

"DiNozzo!" He finally reached him and reached out to roll him over. His neck and limbs looked like they were all facing the right directions, mostly. He might be limping pretty badly for a few days, though.

Tony groaned lightly when he was moved. "Ow."

Gibbs sighed in relief and sat back on his heels. "How was the landing? Did you at least land on your feet?" He teased lightly now that he knew the other man would live.

Tony took a moment to answer. "Yeah... mostly." He grunted. "My knee gave out on me, though, and then I think I twisted it when I fell over." He grimaced, stupid sports injuries. He didn't mention that he landed pretty hard on his wrist when his knee refused to support his weight. It didn't feel broken, though, luckily.

"You wanna take a few days off?" Gibbs asked. The guy _did _just get pushed out of a plane while trying to read somebody his rights... he figured he might as well be nice this once. He was going to make Tony see Ducky for it, anyway, and Ducky would most likely have him placed on medical leave.

Tony glanced at Gibbs incredulously. "Who are you, and what have you done with Gibbs?" He muttered sarcastically. "Only if Ducky says I should." He hated having to take time off, he never knew what to do with himself when he had time on his hands. Well, he supposed that he could get a few cases done that Metro asked him to consult on occasionally. He was a detective before going over to the 'dark side', after all, and they knew that. And he did have that stack of missions the Director asked him to look over to see if an undercover was possible or advisable.

Gibbs hummed. "You good to stand up?" He asked. Tony was going to be sore soon enough, the sooner he got moving, the less stiff his muscles would get, and the less sore he would end up being. He would probably need help walking, though, no need to make that knee any worse before Ducky could look at it.

Tony did a quick mental run through of his body condition and how much his head hurt before nodding and reaching out a hand for his boss to grab and use to haul him up. As soon as they were up, Gibbs helped him unclip his gear while helping him stay upright, his knee wasn't cooperating. By this time, the rest of the Marines who had been in the plane with them finally caught up, and the drop zone pick-up truck had pulled up with the on-site medics. They had to be around during training exercises, training accidents did happen, after all.

Medics weren't always available out in the field, but that didn't mean they had to do without when they were safe at home.

"Sir! Are you alright?" One of the Marines called, feeling bad that they'd accidentally pushed the agent out of the plane. Well, at least he still had the sense of mind to pull his chute, although they all felt he pulled it a little early... Tony merely offered a thumbs up and a grin. The medic didn't say much, merely dropped to his knees to start poking and prodding Tony's, the way he was standing let the man know that something was wrong with it. The Marines had already filled them in on the fact that the NCIS agent had been pushed out of the plane accidentally, and they weren't sure if he was certified to be parachuting out of a military aircraft.

"Old sports injury. Didn't like the landing." Tony explained briefly. The man looked up and nodded while the other medic started shining a light in Tony's eyes.

"Well, you're already standing, that's a good sign. Do you have any dizziness, headache, nausea?" The second medic asked, and Tony shook his head.

"No, just going to be really stiff and sore soon, I think." Tony answered. Gibbs was silent beside him, keeping a hand on his elbow to help him balance without putting weight on his bad knee.

As soon as he'd seen Tony deploy his chute, he'd helped the CO restore order and placed their man under arrest before jumping himself with five Marines behind him. The rest of the Marines had stayed on the plane to guard their new prisoner, while the rest of them went to find Tony and make sure he landed alright, and to inform the medics at the landing point. It would take a bit of doing to maneuver themselves where they needed to land, since they missed the target, but they somehow managed to get close enough, and they'd kept on eye on Tony's chute the whole way down as well. Gibbs heart had stopped for a second when he saw Tony land hard, and then crumble and not move.

"Your knee is already looking pretty swollen, but I think you just twisted the joint." Medic One said, reaching into his kit for an ice-pack, a knee brace, and something to wrap around Tony's leg to keep the pack in place. "What kind of sports injury was it?" He asked.

"Shattered and reconstructed knee cap, college basketball. Ruined my chances of going pro in football." Both medics looked up in surprise.

"You passed your NCIS physicals and evals with a knee like that?" Medic Two asked.

Tony shrugged. "I had a very good surgeon." That, and he actually had to chase down a surprisingly small amount of suspects, and when he did he usually ended the chase pretty quickly, as opposed to playing a long game of basketball or football. He could still play the occasional game with some buddies, but that was laid back. A pro game? Forget it.

"Huh, well, I'm placing you on medical leave, and recommending that you see your regular doctor for a more thorough exam. Otherwise, you look like you landed pretty well..." Medic One's gaze suddenly honed in on Tony's wrist and he frowned before gently grabbing his arm and feeling it. "Hmm, I think you neglected to mention something." He muttered, and reached into his kit for a second ice-pack and a brace.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs snapped, irritated. He hated it when the younger man tried to hide injuries. Tony cringed.

"Sorry, boss." He muttered, almost petulantly. While the medics worked on checking Tony, the Marines had gathered all the discarded gear the two NCIS agents had used.

"Alright, I think that's it. I don't think you will need to go to the hospital, your vitals look good, as long as you see your doctor first thing." The medics said sternly, and Tony grimaced before Gibbs hand landed threateningly on the back of his head. Not a slap, but a warning placement.

"He will be seeing Ducky." Gibbs growled, not happy Tony had tried to hide his wrist. The medics looked confused about who 'Ducky' was, but let it go, assuming (correctly) that this person was some kind of medical professional.

Tony winced at the tone, and mumbled out a 'yes, boss.' Gibbs rolled his eyes and kept a hand on his arm, supporting some of Tony's weight while they moved towards the truck to go back to base, where they would pick up the car and their new prisoners before heading back to Headquarters, the plane should have landed before they got there. The Marines had already hopped in the back, and several hands reached down to help Tony do the same, while Gibbs had absolutely no problem jumping up to sit on the edge with his feet dangling.

Now that the Marines knew he was alright, they could tease a little bit. "So, how was it, sir?" One of them asked, a small smirk on his face.

"Ah... it was alright. Would have been better if it was planned, but..." Tony shrugged with a small grin on his face.

"You planning on ever going again?" Another asked, and Tony actually gave it some thought. After the initial terror of _being shoved out of an airplane_, he had actually enjoyed himself. The view had been amazing, and the chance to be on his own without anything or anyone wanting his attention had been nice, too. Of course, the landing had been less than perfect...

"After some actual classes or whatever, yeah. I think I might." He finally said with a decisive nod. Gibbs smirked and shook his head. If Tony was going to actually learn how to 'chute properly, then he was going to make sure Ducky was on hand at the landing zone, just in case Tony's knee decided not to cooperate with the landing again.

Back at the base, they left the Marines to the dressing down from their CO (for starting a fight on an airplane, near an open hatch, and shoving an untrained NCIS agent out of said hatch) to take their prisoner back with them.

"This was a good day, boss. I mean, I'm not thrilled with all the paperwork waiting for us, but it was a good day." Tony hummed, looking out the window while Gibbs drove, carefully this time.

Gibbs only hummed his agreement.


	3. Out the Back

Tag to 'Yankee White'. I can't have been the only one mad that Gibbs didn't do anything about Tony being tossed out of a van, trapped in a body bag, into the middle of the road, can I?

* * *

Agent Axlerod followed Tony into the bullpen, almost nervous. Gibbs frowned when he looked up and saw Tony limping, and contact burns on skint that was visible.

"What happened?" He asked, standing up and watching Tony in worry.

"What happened, is those FBI goons decided to throw him out of the van, in heavy traffic, before just taking off. They were in the middle lanes, and didn't even bother to take him out of the bag. Which, might I remind you, is black, and it is very dark out there!" Axlerod ranted a bit, not happy about how one of their own had been treated. He supposed they could count themselves lucky they stopped the van before dumping him.

"WHAT!?" Gibbs demanded, and everybody looked up from their work, alarmed. A few reached for either their guns or their phones. They were ready to either call security, or restrain Gibbs. "Where were you?" He demanded of Axlerod.

"I was following them, several cars back. That's not the point, though. _They _didn't know I was following to pick him up. He could have been run over!"

Gibbs shot Tony a look before picking up the phone and calling Ducky. Once Ducky was there and looking Tony over, he barged his way into the Director's office.

Morrow looked up, startled. He was also cursing his luck, he was currently on the phone with the Director of the FBI, who was not happy about NCIS 'stealing' the body from them. "Gibbs, can it wait?" He asked quietly, putting his hand over the mouthpiece.

"No, it can't. I want to talk to you about two FBI agents throwing _my _agent out of the back of a vehicle, in the middle of the Beltway, into heavy, oncoming traffic, while trapped in a body bag. A _black _body bag, in the _dark_." He leaned over the desk, and Morrow mentally gulped.

Gibbs was in full papa-bear mode right now, there would be no stopping him. Instead, he put the phone on speaker and said, "Did you catch that, Rob?" His voice was tight, making his displeasure known. Gibbs jerked back, and then looked at the phone like it personally offended him.

There was silence on the other end. "My agents didn't say anything about that, I will speak with them, and get back to you."

"No you won't!" Gibbs burst out. He knew full well that those two weren't going to see any kind of disciplinary action for putting Tony in danger. At most, when he had Tony hide in the body bag, he'd thought that they would drop him off at the side of the road, not throw him out the back into traffic. "If I have anything to say about it, charges will be filed." He shot Morrow a warning look, who merely nodded.

There was silence on the other end of the line. "I will deal with it." Then the phone clicked and was silent.

Morrow snorted and pressed the button to take it off speaker and clear the line. "Yeah, right." He muttered. "I will get everything started on bringing those FBI agents up on charges. And I'll make sure they stick, somehow. Or that some kind of proper disciplinary action is taken. You go focus on who is trying to kill the president, or if it was even an attack on him." Morrow ordered, and Gibbs obeyed.

He wasn't at all happy about it, but he obeyed.

* * *

When he got down, Ducky was still there, and promptly announced, "Some minor 'road rash' type burns from the body bag and a few scrapes, a lot of bruising, and a very mild concussion. He'll be sore before too long, but there doesn't appear to be any real damage. No broken, fractured, or cracked bones, or lacerations. I do, however, suggest that he stay the night with someone. For the concussion, you understand. Just to be on the safe side."

Gibbs grunted and eyed Tony, who was looking resigned. Gibbs hadn't let him stay over at his house since the incident with Blackadder a year ago, and he didn't even know where Ducky lived. The older man refused to tell anyone, he wasn't even sure if Gibbs knew where Ducky lived! If he wouldn't even tell them, there was no way he would let him stay the night, even if it was on his own recommendation. He had no one to stay with, he was friendly with everyone, but...

"We'll stop by your apartment on the way to my house." Gibbs finally said, to Tony's shock.

"Are you sure, Boss? I don't want to be in your way..." Tony said, hesitant.

"Yeah, your room is still set up from the last time you stayed over." Gibbs shrugged, being nonchalant about this kind of thing was always the best approach to getting Tony to agree to it with minimal fuss. If you made a big deal out of it, then Tony was just more likely to put up a fight on the grounds of 'getting in the way' or 'not wanting to put anyone out'. Sometimes, Gibbs really wanted to meet every partner or 'friend' of Tony's who ever failed him or turned him down for exactly those reasons. He was well aware that he could probably count himself as part of that list as of the past year.

Ducky nodded in satisfaction. "I will be down in autopsy, I have an autopsy to perform and answers to find." He informed the two, and promptly left.

"I will start digging up this guys life, Boss." Tony said, and Gibbs nodded before sitting down so he could start going over what they already had, and got started on the paperwork for this case. It was easier if he tried to do it as they went along, or tried to do as much of it as he could preemptively. As Tony always said, 'work smarter, not harder', after all.

When Tobias Fornell showed up later to harass about the case, he happily watched him and his companion be escorted to Holding on charges of battery. As far as he was concerned, Legal was trying to bump it up to assault of a Federal Agent.

Tobias shot him a dirty look, but didn't resist. He knew he'd really screwed it up with Gibbs this time.


	4. Suits

Gibbs frowned when he saw Tony walk into work wearing a suit.

There was one thing that Tony had made clear early on when he came to work for NCIS, and that was this- Anthony DiNozzo Jr. did not wear suits unless he absolutely had to. In the almost two years Tony had worked with him, he had come to understand a bit more.

Tony only really wore suits if he was uncomfortable with something (or his undercover assignment demanded it) or someone. If he didn't want to let his guard down with somebody.

HR had thrown a fit trying to get him to dress along the 'dress-code' guidelines. Which was, to put it simply, professional attire (or rather, HR's idea of professional attire, which was not exactly practical when chasing suspects). Tony hated dressing up professionally. (He could, the man was like a chameleon sometimes, able to change his 'colors' to fit any situation or environment.) Eventually, Gibbs had had to step in and more or less blackmail HR into leaving Tony alone, much like Abby had done with them when she first started working there and they started giving her grief over her own unique style.

The fact remained, that he tended to use clothes as a shield. If he was dressing appropriately to work, then he wasn't comfortable with something about NCIS anymore, and the only thing he could think of that had changed recently was... Kate.

His eyes widened and he was shocked when he saw Tony start to peck at the keyboard, typing worse than Gibbs on a bad day, like he'd never used one before. The mans career was law enforcement, they didn't have the luxury of peck-typing when they needed information _yesterday_ in order to catch a criminal.

Tony was the technical one of the two of them. Within the first week of working with Gibbs and experiencing his lack of technology skills, Tony had gone back to school (on NCIS's dime, of course) to get a degree in computers (a bachelors in computer science, and he was working on another one at the moment for something else). He'd never find himself working down in Cyber-crimes, of course, but he could work computers. So, why was he pretending otherwise?

That answer, too, was simple.

Kate.

He stopped displaying that brilliant mind that Gibbs knew was there when in public. Instead, he became the class clown and Gibbs started having to deliver head-slaps to get him back on track at least three times a week instead of the maybe once a month they used to be needed. The Tony that he knew, respected, and considered a good friend was the only version he saw when it was just the two of them, and he toned down the clown act with others that knew him nearby, but as soon as Kate was nearby, back to the clown act.

Why was he so uncomfortable around Kate?

It was Tony who'd said she would be a good addition to the team, with some training in investigation. Had he brought her in too soon, or had she said something to throw Tony's walls up? Should he have slowed down and made her do some work here and there with other teams, or sent her through some other FLETC courses first?

He resolved to keep an eye on things, and see if Tony didn't relax with time.

* * *

His efforts to keep an eye on things were put on hold when, two weeks later, Tony was handed a message from some official-looking suits (probably SecNav) and left with nothing but a nod in his bosses direction.

He leaned back with a frown. He wouldn't be seeing Tony for a while, and when he came back he would need a few days to recuperate and find himself again, he might even be on medical leave for a bit when he came back. He didn't like it when Tony went on undercover assignments for other people, but his skills were highly in demand. The man was regarded as one of the best undercover operatives in the world, if he were an animal, it would be a chameleon for sure, even if everybody often referred to him as Gibbs 'loyal St. Bernard'.

"Hey, where's Tony?" Kate asked, coming back from the lunch run. She handed Gibbs his food and set Tony's on his desk before going to sit down. Gibbs sniffed at his food experimentally. One never knew what Kate was going to bring back when it was her turn to go for lunch, Tony and Gibbs already knew that her health food crazes changed almost daily.

"He left to take care of some business. He'll be out of the office for at least a few days." He figured the sooner she knew about it, the better. How many Probies had he kicked off his team because they annoyed him with their constant complaints and questions about Tony's random and unscheduled absences? He figured he was lucky that the various organizations and people that Tony sometimes worked with were at least courteous enough to not call him away during a case. So far, anyway.

"What business?" Kate asked, feeling nosy today.

Gibbs looked faintly irritated at the questions. "DiNozzo is a highly demanded undercover specialist, occasionally he's asked to assist somebody else in an operation. He's worked with FBI and CIA a few times." And, oh, the rants the Italian had treated him to about a CIA operative named Kort... "Actually, I think he's worked for the entire alphabet by now... Although, most of his assignments stay within NCIS, and the SecNav has asked for him specifically a few times, as well. So, yes. He will be gone for a few days, minimum."

He finally took a tentative bite of his food, and nodded in appreciation. She brought him real food this time, not the strange health stuff she seemed to like. He got up to see what she'd brought Tony, and found it to be the same as his, while it looked like she had her usual kind of meal. Since Tony wasn't around to eat it, he took it back to his own desk for later. "And when he does get back, he's going to need time to recenter himself. How much time depends on how long he's gone. So, I don't want to hear any teasing, or sniping, or whatever it is you two do. Try to keep it at a minimum." He warned. "And no bothering him with questions about the assignment. These things are usually classified for a reason." He didn't want to deal with the questions, only to constantly hear the same answer.

Once she wanted to know something, she never gave it up. It was something he liked about her as an agent on his team, and it was a good trait for an investigator, but in this case that trait was not needed.

She scoffed lightly. "I was in Secret Service, Gibbs. I know what classified means." She said, he merely stared at her with narrowed eyes. After a moment, she cleared her throat and quickly went back to her food.

Gibbs sighed then got up, leaving his food for now, to go make sure the Director knew Tony had been called away. While he was gone, he would either be assigned a TDA to fill the gap, or they would be put on cold cases barring an emergency that demanded their presence. Of course, if they were assigned cold cases and Tony was gone for more than a week, then they would be assigned a TDA anyway and put back on the roster. "Sir, Tony's been called away for an assignment." He announced without pause, barging in like he usually did. He knew the director wasn't in a meeting with anybody, if he was then his secretary would have tried harder to stop him from going in.

Morrow barely looked up. "Yes, I just received the email." He was annoyed. Why was it that they all thought they could get away with pulling his agents away from him and only informing him as an after-thought? Honestly!

Gibbs grimaced lightly. "Did they say what the operation was? And an estimated time-frame?" You could never give an exact date with undercover work. Idiots assigning deadlines, and pressuring the undercover to meet it, was what got most undercovers caught out and usually killed as a result. It was delicate work, one wrong move and you were dead, and most of the intel you gathered became useless, meaning your death wasn't even going to be worth anything in the end. It was not something that could be rushed, and unexpected surprises popped up all the time, things that usually caused delays in getting what you needed.

"The operation was classified, they didn't even let _me _know, which I will be speaking with somebody about," Morrow informed, very annoyed at the whole thing. "And they estimate that we will have DiNozzo back within two months."

"Two months?" Gibbs repeated incredulously, annoyed now. "Great." Tony was going to be a mess when he came back, he just knew it. "Radio silent?" He guessed. Morrow nodded, and he scowled. He wasn't even going to be able to get news on how Tony was doing at any point.

Wonderful, absolutely _perfect_.

"You will get a TDA, of course, and continue cases as normal. I think, though, that I'm going to assign Pacci to your team as SFA for now, to round it out to four and so you have somebody more experienced behind you than Todd and the TDA." Morrow said while he made a few notes to himself. TDA's were usually green(er) agents who were somewhat fresh out of FLETC, and hadn't received a permanent assignment yet, whether it be that there were no openings for them to fill at that time, or so they could have a chance to float around the agency and get to experience different aspects of being an agent, see where they worked best. Sometimes a TDA was an older and more experienced agent that wanted to be a floater, or they were back in the country temporarily before being sent out on assignment again.

"And, the usual arrangements for his apartment will be made, as well." Morrow assured. The agency had a 'program' in place, where it footed all rent fees or utility bills while the agent was on a long-term assignment, provided they lived alone. If they didn't, then the agency footed half the bill, that way the other person living there (roommate or spouse) wasn't suddenly having to pay all of it on one paycheck when they were usually paying on two paychecks. Of course, the agent in question still received their full pay while they were gone, plus hazard, so they actually came home with a nice healthy bank account. This way, the agent still had somewhere to come home to, provided that they were lucky and came home at all, of course.

Gibbs was still annoyed, but he nodded his approval of the plan. He liked Pacci, and he was actually looking forward to working with him so closely again, it had been a while since he and Tony had worked a case with the other agent. Since Pacci mostly worked cold cases or kept up with liaison's in other countries. Whenever he caught something on one of his cases, though, he usually ended up bringing it to Gibbs attention. Especially if it ended up being a case that Gibbs originally had. He turned to leave.

"And Gibbs?" Morrow called as he put his hand on the door handle. Gibbs turned. "I'll find out what is happening with our boy and keep you informed as much as I can." He said. Gibbs only nodded and left. Briefly, Morrow felt sorry for any agent foolish enough to get in Gibbs way right now. If DiNozzo was a St. Bernard and Chameleon all in one, Gibbs was a bear. One who's cub had just been taken away.

* * *

Three months. That was how long it took for Tony DiNozzo to come home in... mostly one piece.

While Gibbs was not happy about it taking longer than the original estimate, he also understood it, having done quite a few undercover operations himself. The only things Morrow had been able to get out of the ones running the operation (he wouldn't tell Gibbs who they were, in case Gibbs decided to contact them personally and get himself in trouble), was whether Tony was alright or not. He'd been informed the night before that the op was over, and Tony was home now, but would be on desk duty for a while, having refused time off. (He was really glad now, that he'd stopped by Tony's apartment the night Tony went on assignment and cleaned out the kitchen of everything that would have spoiled before Tony came back.)

Walking into the squad room, he was thrilled to see Tony at his desk, grumbling about his computer monitor, keyboard, and chair being out of place, among other things. He hid his smile. When Pacci was temporarily assigned to work with them, he'd let him use Tony's desk while he was gone (it was more practical this way, instead of Chris having to go back and forth between their area and his own desk all the time), and Pacci had promised that he would put everything back before Tony got back. Since Gibbs didn't get word of Tony coming back until the night before, Chris obviously hadn't had a chance to put everything back to how it was.

He hid his happiness, though, along with his rage when he saw the bruises on Tony's face and around his neck, along with the sling his arm was in. He had no doubt that his shirt was hiding even more bruises. Clearly, the op hadn't ended quite as planned.

"You see Ducky, yet?" He asked, coming up behind and to the side.

"No, I just got in, haven't had the chance to." Tony said, not even reacting. Of course Tony had known Gibbs was there the whole time, Tony always knew where Gibbs was.

"Why don't you go do that, Chris should've been in by the time you get back up, and your desk will be back to normal." He suggested.

Tony frowned. "Chris?" He asked, turning around.

Gibbs took a sip of his coffee. "Pacci. He was assigned my SFA while you were gone, to round out the team and add more experience than the TDA and Kate had." Tony 'ahh'd'. "Go see Abby while you're down there." He called behind him while he went to his own desk and Tony took off for the elevator, getting greetings and careful shoulder-slaps on the way. Everyone was happy to see Tony back, the office was quiet when he was gone, and they never quite realized just how much he helped out everywhere until the times when he wasn't there.

Also, Gibbs should be in a better mood now.

When Chris Pacci walked in soon after Tony disappeared downstairs, the first thing he did was start putting everything back the way Tony had it before he left. "You heard?" Gibbs asked simply.

Pacci snorted. "How could I not?" He asked. "Bunch of high-school girls around here. I will say, that whoever it was that put those bruises had better be dead, or at least locked up with the key thrown away." He said, gathering his things to move back to his own desk. He was mildly surprised by how much stuff had migrated over here, he hadn't even realized he'd started to move in like this. Oh, well. He was glad Tony was back, maybe now Gibbs would calm down and stop terrorizing everyone. _And _he could get back to the slower pace of cold-cases.

He finished putting Tony's desk back together right when Tony returned from downstairs. "Hey, man. How was it with the Bossman?" He asked, clapping Chris on the shoulder.

Chris huffed. "I'm so glad you're back." He muttered quietly.

Tony winced. "That bad?" He questioned. Chris merely gave him a Look and went back to his desk when Kate walked in.

"Tony! You're back!" She greeted, and frowned when she saw the bruises and his arm. "Are you alright?" Gibbs looked up, watching their interaction quietly, thinking back on what he'd observed before Tony left on his assignment.

"Yeah, this is nothing." Tony waved her concern off, and Gibbs could tell that Kate was thrown off by his nonchalance. Gibbs could see why, Clown-act Tony had made a big fuss over a papercut, after all. Gibbs, though, had seen Tony look worse than he did now, and not make a noise of protest. Suddenly, Tony almost lunged for his bag, where he brought out a folded paper. "I almost forgot." He muttered, before bringing the paper over to Gibbs. "My doctor's note." As if he was a kid who didn't want to get in trouble for missing a day of school.

Gibbs scanned it, and nodded when he noted the length of time Tony would be chained to his desk for. Well, at least that would give Tony plenty of time to recenter. His eyes narrowed when he read the summary of Tony's injuries. He made a mental note to speak with the Director about keeping the TDA. Speaking of... where was the kid? He should have been in by now. "Kate, have you seen O'Riley this morning?" He asked. She shook her head before going back to turning on her computer and getting things out for the day. "Hmm. I'll be upstairs. Tony, get settled in."

After speaking with the Director, he made a coffee run, and if he happened to get a box of doughnuts and leave them on the filing cabinet by Tony's desk, and if they _happened _to be Tony's favorite kind... nobody was stupid enough to call him on it. He wasn't pleased when O'Riley didn't come in until a half-hour after his coffee run, a full hour late for work. He looked up and frowned at the junior agent, not speaking, giving him a chance to come to him with his excuses.

When O'Riley finally noticed he was being stared at, he barely hid his wince. "Sorry, Agent Gibbs, my car wouldn't start this morning, so I had to call for a cab, but the traffic was awful, so they took forever to get there to pick me up..." O'Riley stuttered to a halt, aware that Kate and Gibbs were both watching him. Kate in amusement, and Gibbs in irritation. Tony was watching curiously, he didn't recognize this agent.

Although, if he didn't know any better, he would guess that Gibbs actually looked like he was in a _good mood._

"O'Riley. Meet Tony DiNozzo, he's my _actual_ SFA, and in charge when I'm not around. For now, he is on desk duty, for obvious reasons. So, you will stay with my team until he is _off _desk duty. Understand?" Gibbs said, and didn't wait for the agent to stammer out that yes, he understood. "And O'Riley!" He barked suddenly after sitting back down. The man in question jumped and stammered out a 'yes, Agent Gibbs?' "Next time something happens where you know you will be late? Call ahead!"

O'Riley squeaked and scurried to sit down, where he hurried to turn on his computer and put his badge and gun away. Tony glanced at Gibbs and got up to clap a hand on the TDA's shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it, he's usually in a bad mood in the mornings." He advised before going back to his desk so he could see what paperwork he had to do after being gone for three months.

(Of course, he didn't know that Gibbs mood had been steadily worsening since he left, and that, as far as O'Riley was concerned, Gibbs was downright cheerful right now.)

Pacci would have done the paperwork while he was the temporary SFA, but there was probably some that he hadn't gotten to yet before Tony's return. At any rate, Tony preferred to be at least a week ahead of his paperwork, just in case they got a hot case and didn't have time for paperwork.

Before he could really get started, Chris came back over. "By the way, your paperwork is caught up for the next two weeks. It was pretty slow this past week." He said when Tony glanced at him in surprise.

"Thanks, man."

Kate scoffed quietly. "That won't stay that way long." She muttered. Gibbs cleared his throat and shot her a Look. She grimaced before going back to her work. Although, she had to admit, even she had missed Tony's childishness while he was gone, the place had been very quiet without him.

"Actually, Kate, I'm always at least three weeks ahead on paperwork." Tony shot back dryly. "And that includes correcting yours before passing it on to the Boss." Then he sighed and went back to his computer, cursing the fact that his right arm was currently in a sling, meaning that using the mouse was going to be awkward for a while. He was going to be stuck typing one handed for a while, too. Kate stared at him, not sure what just happened.

Right then, Gibbs cell rang, and a few moments later, he was telling the other two to grab their gear. Out of reflex, Tony reached for his bag and stood up. "Whoa, where do you think your going?" Gibbs quietly asked. Tony blinked up at him and opened his mouth to say 'the elevator', when he remembered that he was on desk duty for the foreseeable future. Slowly, he sat back down.

"I'll be ready to start searches as soon as you can tell me the victims name, Boss." He said, sullenly. He _hated _desk duty. Well, at least he had doughnuts...

Gibbs quirked a small smile. "And, Tony?" Tony looked up, curious. "Try not to get too bored, alright? I don't want to come back and find... things popping out of desk drawers." He gave a small warning look. "Give it at least a day before that." A bored Tony, was a often-destructive and prank-happy Tony. No matter what kind of 'mask' he was wearing at the time.

Tony's face fell slightly. "I will try to resist, Boss." He noticed, though, that Gibbs only specified having things pop out of drawers when they were opened... he probably shouldn't superglue any keyboards, though, IT was _not _happy with him last time he did that... Once the team was gone, he sighed and opened up his email, he was expecting there to be a lot of it. While he went through it, other agents came and went, welcoming him home, or asking the occasional question about the op, which he answered as best he could, although his most frequent answer was 'classified'.

* * *

"So, uh... that was Tony DiNozzo, huh?" O'Riley asked Kate while they walked to the truck.

"Yup, that was him. I wouldn't be surprised if he's gone snooping through our desks while we're gone." She said, and was surprised at how _fond _she almost sounded.

"It's what makes him good at his job." Gibbs answered in front of them. What he didn't say, was that Tony liked to know everything about everyone around him to protect himself. If he knew everything about them, then he couldn't be surprised, and there was less chance of them doing something to hurt him. His partner in Baltimore... Tony didn't snoop. He'd given the other man privacy, and the other man ended up being a dirty cop. He could have pulled Tony down with him if he was caught, it would have ended both of their careers, even if Tony was as clean as they came. He would have been 'guilty by association', since he rode with the man every day and didn't notice anything off. Or, he could have been labeled a Snitch, whether he actually Snitched or not, and nobody would have wanted to ride with him.

"Snooping through his co-workers privacy?" She asked sarcastically.

"Snooping. Finding what he wants. Finding answers to his questions." Gibbs shrugged. Watching his back.

"Where has he been, for the past few months?" All O'Riley had heard was that Tony DiNozzo was a great agent (mostly from Abby and Ducky), and how it was quiet without him around. Honestly, he'd spent the first month thinking the man had died. He'd only recently been transferred to the D.C office from Seattle, after all.

"Undercover assignment, don't know where." Was all Gibbs said to that.

"How can you not know, aren't you the team leader?" O'Riley asked, momentarily forgetting his terror of Gibbs.

Gibbs stopped and turned around staring at him. Kate made a face and kept walking. "I don't always know where he goes when he gets called on assignment. I don't even know who he was working with this time. And it was safer that I not know, for Tony. Because the less people that know things, the less likely it is to be messed up." That, and, he knew for a fact that the Director refused to tell him so he didn't make a few phone calls and get himself in trouble. Other agencies didn't like it when NCIS butted its head in, even if that agency happened to be using an NCIS agent undercover.

Later, at the crime scene, after Kate called Tony with the details of their victims so he could start running searches, and Gibbs was interviewing witnesses, O'Riley went up to her with a question. "Agents Gibbs seems to be in a... good mood, today. Did something happen?" To be honest, the good mood was actually scaring him a little bit here.

She snorted. "Yup. Tony came home, that's what happened. I asked around when he first left, apparently Gibbs turns into a bit of a 'papa bear' with Tony sometimes. According to some of the others, Gibbs practically dragged Tony down to HR, and made him sign up, then they were a two-man team for a year until Gibbs recruited me about four months ago, and I think it's coming up two years of them being together total. The longest anyone apparently lasts with Gibbs is a year. There was one who lasted five, until he transferred citing medical concerns. Apparently he started developing ulcers, frequently."

"What does their time together have to do with his leaving making Agent Gibbs so angry all the time?" O'Riley was really confused. Wasn't the team leader not supposed to have favorites? Couldn't that ruin his objectivity?

Kate shrugged. "I don't know, but the two of them can almost read each other like books." She moved away to get a better angle for her sketch. She stopped then and sighed. "Look, you won't really see it much while you're with us, since he's stuck at his desk, but Tony is a great investigator and agent. Just... don't expect him to take everything seriously. There will probably be a few pranks waiting for us when we get back." O'Riley frowned, and made a mental note to have complaint forms ready.

Nearby, Gibbs frowned. While he was glad she acknowledged her superior was a skilled agent, the rest of her statement...

"Ducky, have anything for me, yet?" He asked, kneeling down beside two of the bodies. Gerald looked up from where he was laying out body bags, and the plastic bags to cover the victims hands with.

"Oh, Jethro. You know I won't have anything for you until after I do a proper autopsy." Ducky admonished, honestly, they went through this every time. One would think that a Marine Sniper would have more patience.

"Yeah, but you can tell me something now, can't you?" Gibbs shot his older friend a charming grin, which earned him a Look.

"Hmm, well, I can tell you that they put up quite the fight." He held up one Marines arm. "See these markings? Defensive patterns, and there looks to be something under their fingernails, I will of course send up samples to Abby." Gibbs sighed and sat back on his heels so he could examine the crime scene. "I can tell you, Jethro, these men were not killed here." Gibbs nodded his agreement while he looked around some more.

"Finish bagging and tagging, Kate. O'Riley, come with me to finish interviewing witnesses." He figured the TDA needed more experience. Pacci, as stand-in SFA had done most of the training for the younger man, but now Gibbs was going to be putting him to the test since Pacci was now back to his usual assignments and Tony was stuck at his desk.

When they finally got back to the Yard and checked in all the evidence they'd bagged, they went to find their desks, only to find a small table with pizza's and drinks set up in front of the plasma, while Tony himself was standing in front of the plasma studying the victims service records and scowling.

"See something?" Gibbs asked, taking a piece of pizza and stuffing it in his mouth while he stood beside his SFA. The other two dropped their things off at their desks and stood beside them to listen in.

Tony made a face and sighed. "It's more what I don't see." He grumbled. "There's no connection between any of our victims as far as the Corp is concerned. I still need to do a more in depth check into their private lives, those searches are running right now and I'm still waiting on their financial records... but they were never assigned to the same squad, never crossed paths in training, never assigned to the same bases. He's stationed in Anacostia, Quantico, Norfolk, here at the Yard... They were never even deployed at the same time, two of them were never even deployed at all. This one, Simmons, he was about to be sent out on his first deployment."

Gibbs frowned. "What about before the Corp?" He asked.

Tony made a noise in the back of his throat and hit a button on the remote. "Simmons and Roberts both have juvie records, nothing major enough to keep them from enlisting and by all accounts they shaped up afterwards, lucky for them, it's just for a few fights and an underage drinking charge... but the others are snow white. All grew up in different states, Roberts is from Alaska, I mean, can't get much more out of the way than that..." He cleared his throat after catching a look from the Boss. "Only Roberts didn't go to college, of those who went, again, nothing in common." Tony sighed before he frowned and went back to the college records again. "Oh, wait... they all played sports in college, but that's about it. They weren't all the same sports, either. One ran both cross-country and track-and-field, there's football, basketball... he was on the rowing team." Tony pointed at the Marine in question.

Gibbs frowned, too. "If they were picked up randomly, and with no real reason..." He left his sentence hanging. It would be much more difficult to find whoever killed them if there wasn't a common denominator between the victims. Something they could look into that might indicate how they were found, which would give them a starting point to start tracing the killer's tracks and finding out who they were.

"Well, I am still waiting for financials, there might be something there we can use, Abby and Ducky might also find something for us to find a starting point with... and there might be some cross-over in their private lives, too. Oh, and I was about to call around to members of their squads and CO's." Tony went back to his desk to check the searches he had running. Gibbs grunted and grabbed more pizza, and a drink before going back to his desk to start on paperwork for the case, and make a few phone calls.

"What are you both waiting for? Get food and get to work." He barked when he noticed the other two on his team were still standing there, staring.

"Tony, send the financials to me when you get them. I'll start calling friends and family in the meantime." Kate said, getting the smallest piece of pizza in the boxes with a small grimace about all the grease, and a bottle of water. Tony whistled softly and pointed at the small cooler beside the table, she opened it and found a take-out container with salad in it. "Thanks, Tony." He grinned in reply and went back to his work. She offered some of the salad to O'Riley when she found that there was enough there for all of them. Then she went around and put plates of salad on Gibbs and Tony's desks with a raised eyebrow. Gibbs just stared at it for a moment, but started eating it, as she knew he would.

If there was one thing she noticed, if it wasn't something he considered 'strange', he would eat it if it was put in front of him. He might not appreciate it, and she might pay for it later during combat training or workouts, but he would eat it.

"Kate, crime scene pictures been uploaded yet?" Tony asked.

"Oh, here they are. Evidence already has the files, too. And the sketches have already been scanned in, too." She pulled up the files on her computer before moving them to the plasma, where they would be bigger and easier to spot something in them.

Tony took one look and grimaced while he shook his head. He didn't say anything, though. Instead, he started examining them for anything off. He couldn't look at background scenery because the bodies had been dumped in an abandoned industrial complex, inside one of the warehouses.

"Timeline?" Gibbs asked several hours later, after they'd all had a chance to make calls and go over what little they had again.

"Ok, Roberts is on liberty right now, but the others were all reported UA this morning, right after we got the call out. The system didn't get fully updated until just a little bit ago. I spoke with some of their buddies, they all say the same thing, which is actually kind of surprising right now, considering how little they have in common. All of our dead Marines, have a tendency to disappear on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. No matter if they are on duty the next morning or not. Simmons' room-mate reports that when he comes back, very early in the morning, he made sure to stress that bit, he is more often than not covered in bruises." Tony reported. "I'm thinking Fight Club, things got out of hand last night?" He decided to just lay that out there.

"I looked into financials. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, there have been some random deposits of upwards of a thousand dollars. Not every one of those days, sometimes they would miss a deposit. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, however, all have withdrawals of several hundred dollars, regardless of if a deposit was made the day before. The only difference is in how much was withdrawn. A big deposit, was usually followed by a big withdrawal, no deposit had a small withdrawal." Kate added in. "An underground fight ring, with cash prize for the winner, and a betting pool for spectators would support that."

Gibbs glared at his desk for a moment, then got up and grabbed his coffee cup before going to the elevator. Tony followed, guessing that he was headed for Autopsy.

"Ducky, have you found anything?" Gibbs asked the moment the door opened.

"Ah, Jethro. Right on time. First, look at all the different colors our Marines are. Some of those bruises are days old, others as fresh as last night. I compared fist sizes, and some of these bruises here," He pointed out a few specific bruises on Simmons' chest. "Match perfectly with the size and shape of Roberts' fist." He looked at them, and wasn't surprised that Jethro and Anthony both looked like they just confirmed a theory.

"They beat each other up." Anthony summed up nicely, not surprised at all.

"Yes, I take it you found something in their personal lives?" Ducky asked.

"Yes, nightlife and financials seem to support the idea of them being involved in some kind of underground fighting ring." Gibbs answered.

"Hm, yes. That would explain the injuries. But not how they ended up on my tables. Look here." He led them over to his X-ray lights and turned the lights on. "See here? Broken collar bone, ribs, punctured lung, which is what killed him by the way... this was no fight gone wrong that killed Simmons, Jethro. And all of them have the same injuries. No, if one of them became this severely injured during one of their fights, then the rest of the night would have been called off, or the others would have taken him to the hospital with some excuse. We might have one man down here, but not five. No, they were all beaten to death. And it was deliberate." Ducky said, moving back to his desk to start writing up reports before he got to finishing the last autopsies.

Gerald had gotten the X-rays done while he started the first one, then he studied them, but now he needed to finish the rest.

In the elevator, Gibbs sighed in frustration. "We need to find out where these fights are, and who else is involved. One of them is our guy." Gibbs muttered under his breath.

Tony hummed. "Well, as for location... that warehouse they were found in is in an abandoned area, right? A spot like that would be perfect to hold a fight club. Maybe not that exact warehouse, since Ducky said that they'd been moved, but that general area. If we search all the other warehouses, one of them will probably show signs of being used recently." He suggested, tilting his head to the side in thought.

"Good idea, DiNozzo. Kate and I will go check it out while you and O'Riley stay here and do some more digging. Call around to other unit CO's and see if they know whether any of their men have the same disappearing act as our victims did." Gibbs instructed. And that was another thing that made Tony so good at his job. He could think like the criminals they were chasing, far more easily than some other cops or agents could. It was partly what made him such a good actor during his undercover assignments.

Tony smiled. "It's good to be home, Boss." He murmured quietly just when the elevator stopped, he made it out the door and back to his desk before Gibbs could say anything or do anything. He was a little hurt when Gibbs said he would take Kate with him, until he forced himself to remember that he was stuck to his desk for the time being, on medical grounds. He was lucky Morrow had let him come back to work _at all_, and hadn't forced him to take medical leave until he healed. But still, not being out there with Gibbs felt wrong, he was forced to rely on somebody else to have his boss's back, a job that was solely his for a long time.

"Kate, come with me." Gibbs said, fishing his gun out of his desk drawer and grabbing his jacket.

"Where are we going?" She asked, grabbing her own things as she moved. She'd learned quickly, that unless you wanted to be left behind, you better move quick.

"Back to the Industrial area our Marines were found. Come on!" He moved to the elevator with her scrambling behind. She looked confused, but didn't ask, yet.

Tony sighed and turned to O'Riley. "Ok, I need you to call around to Marine bases, talk to CO's, ask if any of their men have the same schedule ours seemed to have. I'm going to go down other trails, just in case it's not a fight club. Once I'm done, I'll join you. Get started." He assigned the TDA his task and started on his own, making sure they had every possibility covered, ruled out, or set aside as 'possible'.

By the time Gibbs and Kate came back from their trip, Tony and the TDA had written up a small list of possible Marines, Navy, and even a few Air Force and Army involved in their possible fight club, and Tony had crossed other possible reasons for their deaths and injuries off the list as well. He'd also sent Balboa's team out to search through the dead Marines apartments or barrack dorms for anything they might have found interesting. He would have gone himself, but... Balboa's team wasn't doing anything, though, and he was more than happy to help out.

"Boss, we have a list of possible underground fighters from all corners of our nations great military," His sarcastic tone told everyone what he thought of this fight club and the servicemen's involvement. "And Balboa's team is going through the dead Marines living spaces. Did you find anything?" He asked.

"Yeah, you were right. We found the warehouse that shows definite signs of hosting a fight club." He considered for a moment. "If they stick to schedule, there won't be a fight tonight. They would be stupid to go back to that warehouse any time in the next few _months_, let alone tomorrow."

"If they're smart, they would have several locations to go between. If police interest is high on one location, they will go to another until the police's attention is off them. Now that the warehouse has been discovered, they'll probably abandon it all together. Well, assuming they know it's discovered. Did you find anything useful inside?" Tony asked.

"No." Kate said, frustrated. "Nothing but beer bottles, trash, and blood spatters in the main area. We think it's from the fights, a man loses a tooth, gets a bloody nose, broken nose, and all that. Lab techs are there now, gathering what they can for Abby."

"Then they will definitely know that we found the warehouse, if they don't already." Tony concluded.

Gibbs sighed. "Go home, people. Be back at 0800. Tony, we'll stop by your apartment to pick up clothes on the way to my place." Everyone scrambled to collect their gear and get out before Gibbs changed his mind or remembered something he'd meant to have them do. Tony merely stood up and started stuffing things in his bag one handed, slowly.

"I can stay at my place, Boss, you don't have to..." He started, slightly startled. It wouldn't be the first time the Boss dragged him to stay with him while he was hurt, but it also hadn't happened in a while.

Gibbs stopped him with a glare. "You're coming to my house." He said, and that was final. He didn't even want to know how Tony had gotten to work when his right arm wasn't exactly usable for turning the key, using the stick shift on his car, etc. He really, really hoped that Tony had gotten a ride from someone or taken the bus.

Tony sighed and finished packing his bag, grabbed his gun, and followed him to the elevator after shutting his computer down.

"We'll stop by the butchers and get steak on the way." Gibbs decided, and almost smirked when Tony became much more eager to go home with him after that.

"Ah, it's been so long since I had a proper steak..." Tony practically moaned at the thought. "You would not believe how many high-end five star restaurants I've been in the last three months, and not _one _of them could serve a proper steak." He complained. Honestly, he was pretty sure that Gibbs had forever ruined restaurant steak for him. Gibbs' steaks were thick and tender. The way he cooked them, in a pan over his fireplace and with beer, bourbon, and something else that he refused to share, made it so they melted in your mouth. The steaks at the restaurant's had been... nice, he supposed. They were properly cooked and well-seasoned, but... they were smaller sized, not nearly as thick, and didn't have nearly as much flavor as Tony had come to expect from when Gibbs cooked.

Gibbs made a face. "That kind of mission, huh?" He muttered, and Tony froze.

"I can neither confirm nor deny." He quipped, which he knew full well was a confirmation.

Some missions, the target was high class, liked the finer things in life. Those were the rich snobs who bought and sold police officers at the drop of the hat, the ones who could afford the fancy lawyers capable of getting them out of anything if there was even the _tiniest _loophole of a hole in the prosecutions case. They were also the ones you had to be the most careful around. Just as they could afford the best lawyers, they could afford to hire the best men. They were also the coldest, as they saw everyone beneath them, and did not hesitate to sacrifice their own men if it meant getting rid of a 'bug'. Oh, somebody else messes with some of their men, and war would be declared to show why that was a bad idea, but they could sacrifice all the men they wanted.

Honestly, both Gibbs and Tony preferred infiltrating the poorer criminal organizations, the ones who ruled the streets by fear, and not money. But that was just their personalities, neither one of them could tolerate the atmosphere of the upper-class.

Now that he was listening for it, Gibbs could hear a slight accent, a slight lilt to Tony's voice. Tony had been using the manners his mother taught him to the fullest for the last three months, and the habit hadn't entirely faded away yet. Before his mother died, he'd had the best of tutors growing up, etiquette, elocution... he learned it all. And they were lessons Tony made a point of not using when around his colleagues and friends. Tony called it his 'commoners accent' as opposed to his 'high-society accent'.

"Well, then, maybe a good steak dinner is just what you need to feel at home again." Gibbs murmured. He did a quick mental inventory on his kitchen. "Hmm... we'll have to stop at the grocery store and get stuff for some baked potatoes, too. I'm out of sour cream, and bacon. I used the last of it this morning." He grimaced. He wasn't about to buy pre-made bacon bits, either. Oh, no. He'd buy some thick cuts of bacon and crumble it up after cooking it. "We better get some kind of green stuff, too, or Ducky won't be pleased with us." They both grimaced at the thought. They were both 'meat and potatoes' guys, they didn't appreciate a lot of what they considered 'rabbit food'.

"Hmm, steaks, sour cream, onion, mushrooms?" Gibbs shrugged, why not. "Ok, mushrooms, bacon, do we need potatoes, too, or do you have them?" Tony asked, running through a list.

"Better get a few, just in case." Gibbs decided.

"I'll go ahead and pick up some beer, then, too. If we think of anything else, we'll have to hope we think about it before we leave the store." He muttered as they reached Gibbs truck. Gibbs chuckled his agreement, pleased that Tony was home.

* * *

A week later, they'd found and disbanded the underground fight ring, the servicemen involved were facing disciplinary charges for it (some were dishonorably discharged over it, others were demoted and had liberties cancelled for the foreseeable future, among other things), and the ones who killed the five Marines in custody.

The five Marines were supposed to throw their fights, but didn't. As a result, those who stood to gain the most from the bets were not pleased. They got a few friends, took the Marines out back, and showed them just how displeased they were. Afterward, they were dumped in another warehouse on the other side of the industrial complex and left to die.

Gibbs was disgusted by the whole affair.

On the other hand, Tony had a doctor's appointment today to check that his arm could come out of the sling, and to make sure his ribs were healing as they should. They weren't broken, but there were a few cracks and bruises on them. When he first got home, the doctors estimated roughly three weeks on desk duty, hopefully (for everybody's sanity) the two weeks Tony had left on desk duty could be taken down to one week or less.

Honestly, Gibbs was surprised Tony lasted the first day before getting bored enough to start pranking everybody. The second day... the three came back from interviews and chasing leads to find all three desks had been pranked, even Gibbs' desk. By the end of the week, there wasn't a single desk in the entire room, not just the MCRT's area, that had not been pranked at least once in some way. And, in true DiNozzo fashion, not one prank crossed the line with the person being pranked. It was all something that _everybody _could laugh at, even the victim. Well, Gibbs wasn't laughing when his desk was targeted, but he was also Gibbs.

He had a reputation to uphold.

Gibbs had been approached by almost everybody in the building, almost begging him, to do something to get Tony DiNozzo off desk duty as quickly as possible and back out into the field. Everybody may be able to laugh about the pranks, but that didn't mean they enjoyed being the target. He knew for a fact that O'Riley had tried to file multiple complaints against Tony for unprofessional behavior, and... he couldn't even remember the other reasons the TDA had come up with. He was going to be glad when he could finally release the agent back into the TAD pool.

Personally, he was surprised O'Riley had managed to stick around for so long. Most Probationary agents and TDA's assigned to him begged for a transfer within the first week or two. And that was when Tony was _there _to head off the worst of his attitude. With O'Riley, he'd been in a particularly bad mood because his SFA was gone and he had no way of knowing if he was alright or when he was coming back.

Has he ever mentioned that he hated it when Tony was loaned out to other agencies for undercover work?

Well, he did. He hated it a lot.

He'd been pleased to see Kate loosening up a bit over the past week. She'd said a few things to Tony that Tony, fresh from undercover and not being in the mood for keeping up the act, had put her in her place, hard. Gibbs was pleased to see it, it meant he was starting to settle in with her around, but at the same time, how much of it was just mental exhaustion from a long stint undercover?

Tony had also, in the meantime, convinced Gibbs to let him go back to his apartment after the doctors appointment today. Gibbs was reluctant to let him go because of his arm, but at the same time, Tony's life needed to start going back to normal if he was going to settle back into it. Didn't mean he wasn't going to pop in and spend a few nights at Tony's place, have dinner and whatnot, just to make sure his younger friend was really settling in as he should. And he was sure that some of Tony's neighbors would be happy to keep an eye out, Tony was always helping them out when they needed it.

He was relieved when Tony came back from the doctors with a note stating that he was healing well and if everything continued to go well, he would be able to return to field duty in another week.

"He also said I can start taking the sling off, but if it starts to hurt too much, he wants me to put it back on." Tony made a face to show just what he thought of that.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs growled, letting him know that he better do as the doctor ordered, no messing around.

Tony made another face and sighed before going back to his desk, where he practically ripped the sling off and dumped it in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet behind him, where he had a small collection of slings, braces (wrist, ankle, knee, shoulder), stress balls, ice packs (the chemical activated ones), heat packs, etc. Except for the ice and heat packs, everything in that drawer was given to either him or Gibbs at some point in the past two years of them working together. Once they no longer needed it right then, it generally got thrown in there until something happened to aggravate an old injury or they did something and didn't feel like going to the hospital for it. Ducky usually caught them, but he was good about taking a look at it himself instead of forcing them on the hospital staff.

He paused a moment and pulled out a stress ball. It would help restrengthen the muscles in his arm. Maybe not the right ones, but, hey. That was what workouts were for. He was going to hit the gym later on and start his own PT regimen. He was a PE major, that included sports medicine and PT, so he knew how write up and follow a PT plan.

* * *

The next morning, Gibbs was thrilled when he pulled up at Tony's apartment building to give him a ride into work, and he wasn't wearing a suit.


	5. Undercovers

"Hey, Tony?" McGee suddenly asked while he was looking through an old case file. He'd noted pretty early on that it involved an undercover operation and Tony was listed as the undercover. Thinking back, he realized that whenever their team needed something undercover done, Tony always seemed to be the one doing it. Unless they needed a woman, of course, then they either got Ziva to do it, or asked another agent. And then there were the times when he would disappear for weeks to months on end and Gibbs never said anything except he was taking care of 'business'.

"Yeah, Probie?" Tony asked absently, he scowled as he started writing the same thing on five different forms. Why did they need these many forms for one thing? Honestly, field agents had better things to do than a mountain of paperwork.

"How many undercover persona's have you had, and what were your favorites?" He asked bluntly. Tony stopped and blinked for a moment before turning to look at him curiously.

"What brought this on?" He asked. He glanced over at Gibbs and Ziva, only to see that they were looking over now, too.

"This case involves you going undercover." He held up the file he was reading. "And you go undercover or disappear on 'business' a lot, so..." He shrugged. Tony gave him a strange look, one that said he was trying to solve a puzzle, and took the case file from him.

"Ah ha." He laughed once he saw the picture of the main target. "This one. Oh, now this one was interesting. I never did quite figure out what was going on with that guy..." He muttered, and handed the file off to Gibbs when he got up and held out his hand. Gibbs merely smirked in amusement.

"Yeah, that guy was... something else alright." He said.

Tony settled back into his chair with a sigh and looked thoughtful for a few minutes. "Well... a lot of the undercovers I've done are actually still classified. I can probably get away with telling you what personas I've played, but nothing beyond that." He warned. Tim nodded his understanding. "I think you know about most of the times I've gone undercover with this team since you've been here, Probie. I think the first undercover I did with you around was when Vos killed Pacci." Gibbs nodded his agreement, that sounded right to him.

Tony looked thoughtful again. "With the team, I've been an arms dealer, drug dealer, smuggler... now that was interesting. Fellow escaped convict, disgruntled boyfriend... I've had to go in somewhere as a Petty Officer and every variant of that rank and title, I've been a Captain, lieutenant, come to think of it... I've been almost every Marine rank under the sun, and almost every Naval rank possible as well... well, I haven't gone in as an Admiral or anything, that would be a little obvious if nobody had ever heard of me before." He said with an eyeroll. "I was an Admiral's aide a few times, though. Do not recommend that as a career path..." He made a face. Not with that particular Admiral, anyway.

"What about outside the team?" Tim asked.

Tony pursed his lips as though trying to decide what to tell them. "Outside the team... I've worked undercover as a Navy SEAL, one of my covers was as a Gunnery Sergeant assigned to a unit in Iraq, I've been in a Marine Sniper unit, I've gone in as a Naval Fighter pilot a few times, those ones are always fun. I love flying those babies..." He leaned back in his chair, daydreaming for a moment.

"Wait, you know how to fly a plane? And a fighter jet?" Tim asked, surprised.

"And a chopper. I could fly commercial if I wanted to. If they need it for an undercover operation, they put me through the appropriate training to better fit the role. Having an undercover who is able to fly a fighter actually benefits NCIS because if for some reason they need a pilot." He held up his hands in a 'what can you do' gesture.

He went back to his recitation. "Whenever I get loaned out to other agencies, I usually end up being an arms dealer, or hired muscle of some kind. Or I'm in as the middle man for some sting operation. I've infiltrated Mafia groups, the Mob, Cartels, you name it, I've probably infiltrated it. I've even been in a few terrorist cells... the freedom fighter groups I've gotten in with always make life interesting."

"Wow." Tim was amazed. "You've, huh... gotten around then." It was a simple statement.

Tony snorted. "Yeah... you could say that. For future reference, if I end up going out on 'business', and it takes longer than a few weeks, you can be sure that I'm probably getting special training for the persona. Like when I go in as a SEAL, I gotta train a bit so that I can make the bare minimum of what a SEAL is required to do to be considered 'mission ready'. When I was training for my first op as a pilot, they had me in flight school for a few months while still working normal cases before they even told me why I was in flight school." He explained.

Gibbs snorted. "They didn't even know if the op was going to go forward. The guys we were after might have slipped up and gotten caught before the op was able to be put in play. But, they figured that it might come in handy if they needed an agent able to fly a fighter in the future. And, Tony was enjoying himself." They'd (the bosses) argued many times that it would be easier to pull an already established pilot in and train him to work undercover, but he knew that they were never going to get an undercover as good as Tony.

"A good undercover agent has a wide variety of skills, Probie. It's not all just talking, acting a certain way, or trying to read the situation right so you don't accidentally give yourself up. You gotta know stuff. You need to know what your talking about, and be able to physically demonstrate if need be. I've gone in as an IT tech more than a few times, and a few times as a hacker. I'm not nearly as dumb with computers as I act sometimes. If I couldn't do anything with them, I wouldn't be able to always get the intel I need." He shrugged.

Ziva nodded. "I am trained in many different areas as well. Piloting is one, languages, computers, all needed when infiltrating or assassinating." She said in agreement.

"Eh, I actually managed to get it stipulated in my contract with NCIS, no assassinations for me." Tony said, shaking his head. He had no interest in that side of... things. He knew that they happened within NCIS, he knew that Gibbs himself had been assigned a few marks back in the day to take out. But he was a cop. And that just... rubbed him the wrong way, even if he knew that sometimes... well sometimes arresting them just wasn't going to be enough.

"How many languages do you know, Tony?" Ziva asked in curiosity. She knew he spoke Spanish and some Italian, but he was right. To be a good undercover agent, he would need to have many different skill sets, and he probably kept them hidden until they were needed.

"Uh... five or six? Not including English." He said. "Italian, Spanish, Arabic- I'm not as fluent in that one, Mandarin, German, Hebrew." He threw her a smirk, and her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing dangerously, but with a playful glint. "And I'm actually working on a few Middle Eastern dialects just because." He shrugged. He wasn't going to tell them that learning languages was made easier with the language feature that most movies had, along with subtitles. Of course, the subtitles weren't always accurate, and sometimes they spoke too fast for his untrained ears to pick up what they were saying, but it helped get how the language was supposed to sound in his head.

Especially when he was learning Mandarin.

Tim stared at him in shock and awe before he shook himself. "What would you say your favorite undercover assignment so far has been?"He asked again.

"Oh, the ones where I get to fly the fighters, definitely. I've had two of those, oddly enough, but I loved it." And... Tony was off in dreamland. Wow, he must really love flying.

Gibbs smiled slightly at the sight. Oh, yes. Fighting to keep DiNozzo in flight school at the time was worth it. Like he said, Tony had been enjoying himself. Whether the op actually went through or not, that made it worth it in his eyes.

"Ziva, I'm assuming you can't talk about any undercover assignments you've been part of?" Tim asked the Mossad assassin.

She shook her head. "If I were to tell you about any of them, I would have to kill you." She actually, almost sounded apologetic there.

"Boss?" He asked.

Gibbs tilted his head. "I've been an IT guy a few times." He chuckled at their disbelieving stares, and shrugged. "I knew enough about what I was doing to do it. And I don't do much undercover work anymore, if ever. If you want some good undercover stories, talk to Ducky. Now he has stories he could tell." Although, most of Ducky's stories were still classified, so it was a trick to getting him to stop before he revealed too much.

"Ducky?" Tim asked.

Gibbs nodded seriously. "He wasn't always a ME. No, he used to be a field operative for M16. Which is how we met, actually. That's one story, you will never know." He looked around in warning.

They all protested, eventually gave in and agreed not to ask, but they all resolved to find out the story someday. Gibbs would just need to keep their knowledge of such a promising story a secret.

"Hey, Boss, remember that time when..." The paperwork was forgotten on the desks behind them as they had all rolled their chairs to sit in a circle in the middle of their area.

Gibbs and Tony swapped and shared stories of some of their more interesting undercover assignments, without giving out any details that might be deemed classified, of course. Ziva shared what little she felt she might be able to get away with, and nobody noticed when it got dark out and everybody else started going home for the night.


	6. Phones

McGee watched in horror as Gibbs growled and dunked his phone into his mostly full coffee mug. The loud, constant, and annoying ringing stopped immediately.

Tony didn't react, he merely sighed and hit a button on his keyboard that started the printer behind him and reached into the filing cabinet behind him to pull out one of the many boxes containing replacement phones for Gibbs. "Third phone today." He grumbled.

"Why?" McGee asked nervously. He'd never seen Gibbs destroy a phone, he only knew there were replacements at all because of the time Gibbs phone overheated during that time when the AC wasn't working and it was really hot out.

"It's the anniversary of one of his divorces. Don't know which one, but she keeps calling him. She does this every year. Last year, I had to get her number on the 'reject' list through NCIS, so she can't call his work phone anymore." Tony explained quietly while he pulled a small case out of his desk and opened it to reveal SIM cards. He quickly and efficiently traded out the SIM card from the new phone for one of the ones in the case and turned it on.

Almost immediately, it started to ring again, causing Gibbs to snap his head up with a glare. Tony took one look at the caller ID and grimaced before hanging up the call.

McGee winced when he saw the look that the poor phone was getting, and grabbed it from Tony before he could give it to Gibbs. He assumed the number that Tony winced at was hers, so he quickly blocked it.

"There. That number is blocked now. It can't come through anymore." He said in satisfaction, handing the phone to Gibbs, who took it warily and watched it for a few minutes in suspicion, as if it might attack him. When it didn't ring again, he relaxed and went back to what he was doing before.

"Where did those SIM cards come from, and why did that one work? Those don't come pre-programmed." He asked Tony. The cell and service provider had to program the phone with the right information, otherwise it wasn't going to actually make or receive calls.

"Hm?" Tony looked up from the form he was looking over and filling out. "Oh, Abby cloned his SIM card years ago, after the first time he destroyed one. We went to switch out the old one into a new phone, and it was cracked. She spent hours trying to recover any of his data off of it, I think she only got his phones basic information off of it. We had to go to his service provider and... it was a mess. Then, we had to spend hours talking Gibbs through how to program his speed dial, he has all the other numbers memorized. It's a good thing she cloned them, because then he started dunking them in coffee or paint thinner if he was really annoyed." Tony explained.

"Why didn't you just block the number before today?" Tim decided not to even go there.

"We did." Tony grimaced. "Five SIM cards ago." He filled in a few more blanks on the form and got up to give it to Gibbs to sign.

"What's this?" He demanded after scanning it over.

"New form to fill out from the guys down in Supply in cahoots with the guys in accounting. They're tired of constantly having to replace your phone. So, from now on, every phone you destroy, half of it's market value with be deducted from your salary." He explained bluntly. "And if it continues to be a problem, then that will change to them charging you the full market price."

"When?" Gibbs asked warily. He'd never heard of this before.

"I was reading the email and printing out the new forms as your old phone took a swim." Tony said bluntly. "Which means, as you were not informed yet, that phone does not count. However, every phone you destroy from now on, means more paperwork for me." He leaned over Gibbs desk threateningly.

Gibbs blinked and resisted the urge to swallow nervously. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Tony nodded slowly. His eyes promised to make Gibbs work life miserable if Gibbs created more unnecessary paperwork for him.

Neither of them even considered just not filling out the new forms. There were cameras in the room, pointed right at their area. Supply and accounting would both know when they got requisitions for new phones for Gibbs, but none of the new forms to accompany it.

Gibbs nodded his understanding while Tony fished the old phone out of the coffee mug.

"You do that, while I take this down to Abby. Maybe she can salvage something." Tony muttered, eyeing the paperwork stack in warning. He headed for the elevator while Kate, Tim, and Gibbs watched. Two in shock and awe, the other thoughtful.

Gibbs head suddenly snapped around and he barked. "Anticipation, McGee!"

"Yes, Boss!" McGee jumped and said, almost automatically.

Gibbs snorted and looked down at the paperwork Tony had handed him and scowled. He briefly contemplated going for a coffee run, but knew that if this wasn't done or being done before Tony came back, he was going to be swamped with paperwork, unwanted phone calls, unwanted emails, etc. Just like the time he kept getting phone calls from people inquiring about the car he was selling a while back. He didn't even own that kind of car, he knew what was going on, though.

The day before those phone calls started, he'd made the mistake of getting on Tony DiNozzo's bad side.

What did he do?

He punished Tony for something he'd thought Tony had done, so Tony set up an ad on eBay and in the newspaper for a car for sale, and put Gibbs contact info down as the owner.

After everything with Jeffrey White was done, he'd gone to Tony's apartment, pizza and beer in hand, to grovel, and find out the real story behind the event that he punished Tony for.

Turned out, Tony had assigned Kate to cleaning out and restocking the truck as punishment for back-talk and consistently not getting her reports done on time, or filled out correctly. He left her alone to do that while he went to fill out a disciplinary action report, just to dangle in front of her as incentive to straighten her act up.

(In keeping with Tony's personality and style, Gibbs didn't know about any of this. Tony preferred dealing with discipline on the team himself, he'd only bring it to Gibbs attention if nothing he said or did worked and it was getting out of hand.)

However, instead of doing as she was told, Kate went to hang out with Abby, telling her that Tony was being unfair and trying to throw his 'non-existent' weight around. Needless to say, the truck didn't get cleaned, or restocked like it was supposed to be that week. Also, Abby didn't speak with Tony for a week outside of work-related interactions, until she was reamed out by Gibbs.

So, when they got called out to a crime scene, and the truck was still full of trash, and the bins and cabinets were still empty or half-empty... Gibbs demanded to know who was supposed to clean it out last to the nearest person, who happened to be Kate. She told him she thought it was Tony's job to do it last, and he was so angry about it not getting done that he didn't even stop and think about what was wrong with that statement. (Tony was the Senior Field Agent. Cleaning and stocking the truck wasn't his job, it was Kate and Tim's jobs as the junior and probationary agents).

So, he forced Tony to clean it and stock it while the rest of them went out to eat, after one of the biggest head slaps he'd ever delivered, accompanied by a lecture about doing his job. Tony was so confused about what he was supposed to have done, and Gibbs didn't even let him get a word in to ask what he'd done. He didn't learn what he was supposed to have done until later, when Kate taunted him about it.

Needless to say, that disciplinary action report he was going to File 13, didn't get File 13'd. And he wrote her up additionally for insubordination and not following orders.

So, as soon as Tony was done with the truck, he'd gone straight to his computer and taken those ads out. Two days later, they finally got permission for their plan for Jeffrey White to go ahead, and they scrambled into place, which is when the phone calls started coming in with people asking about a non-existent car for sale.

After Gibbs finally learned what happened, and why the truck wasn't cleaned and restocked, he apologized (it was allowed when it was important and an apology was actually warranted. It was the apologizing for nothing that really got to him) and the next day Kate was yelled at for not following orders and then for lying to Gibbs about it. She was suspended for two weeks, during her suspension, she was to attend FLETC classes about writing up proper reports and the chain of command. This, of course, set Abby off and she stormed up to Tony's desk to yell at him for being so childish and petty.

Needless to say, Gibbs was not happy with her, and made sure she knew the truth of what really happened.

She was denied Caf-pow for a month, Gibbs even made sure to call in at all the places near the Yard that sold it to make sure they knew not to sell to her, or allow any NCIS agent or anybody else associated with NCIS to buy it for her (even though Gibbs was the only one to bring her any). They were under instructions to ask who it was for. Naturally, Gibbs couldn't stop her from drinking it at her apartment or getting it somewhere else away from the yard, but security was also instructed not to allow her to bring any in with her.

Tony didn't talk to her for a month, not until she apologized and was sincere.

So, no. He didn't want to get on Tony's bad side. Not again. It just wasn't worth it.

He sighed. He was going to have to find some other way of curbing his temper or solving his problems that didn't involve destroying his phone. For one, he didn't want to get it taken out of his salary, not that he couldn't afford it, and for another? He didn't want to force unnecessary paperwork on his SFA.

Last time somebody tried to do that... well, lets just say that there was a reason his team actually had _less _paperwork to do compared to the other investigative teams in NCIS. But that was a story for the bean-counters and bureaucrats to tell.


	7. The Picture

Tag to S2E19, 'Conspiracy Theory'

* * *

Gibbs was waiting for Kate when she got off the elevator.

She slowed down and watched him warily, having no idea what he would have to say after last night, when her and Tony accidentally sent him those two pictures that they were essentially blackmailing each other with.

"My office." He said simply and walked towards the elevator.

She was surprised to find Abby already waiting beside it when she turned around to go back to it. She'd just gotten off it, when did Abby get there?

Gibbs stopped the elevator after a few seconds, and turned to the girls. "Now, one of you want to tell me what that picture was about that I got last night? The one making it seem like Tony is gay?" He felt the need to clarify which one so that the two didn't try to play stupid and pin it all on Tony for some reason.

"It was nothing, Gibbs, just some harmless payback." Abby said, confused. "Tony was trying to blackmail Kate with some picture of her back in college, she wanted something to make him stop." She knew that it was probably going a little far, but there was no harm in it. She would apologize to Tony later if he brought it up.

"Harmless?" Gibbs repeated in disbelief. Kate nodded her agreement with Abby's statement. "This is a law enforcement agency that deals primarily with military personnel. What do you think would have happened to Tony if that picture had gotten out, or if somebody had seen it while on yours or Tony's computers?"

Neither girl answered, but they had the feeling that from Gibbs tone that it would not have been good.

"None of the military we work with, or interview will work with him, or want to speak with him. Agents could refuse to work with him, or refuse to back him up in the field. That rumor that you two could have started would have been the end of his career and possibly his life!"

"Come on, Gibbs, it wouldn't-" Kate tried to brush it off, but he spoke over her.

"You know, Tony doesn't talk about his past much, but sometimes... his partner in Peoria, rode with him for almost a year. Somebody started a rumor that he was gay. It wasn't true, his girlfriend actually left him when she happened to overhear the rumor. But everybody believed it, everybody but Tony. The teasing, the heckling, the downright bullying... one day, Tony was in court, his partner got a call out. Back-up was ten minutes late in arriving, even though dispatch could put the closest cop car less than three minutes away. Their excuse was that they were having engine trouble. Guess what? Tony didn't buy that, so he did some poking around. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. His partner is still in a coma to this day, after being beaten half to death and shot three times, and the men who put him there got away." He fixed the two with a look.

"You know, most of the civilian population takes a very dim view to this sort of thing, but at least civilians aren't likely to beat each other up over it, at least civilians don't have to be able to trust those around you 110% with your life. Military, law enforcement, there is no tolerance for that kind of thing here. To accuse or even threaten to start those kind of rumors, true or not, is a very serious thing. I want a very public apology from both of you, and make it very clear just what it is you are apologizing for, just don't say what it was the picture showed." He fixed them both with a look.

"And Abby, I expect that picture to be completely erased, I don't want there to be the slightest chance that somebody will stumble on it or come across it anywhere." He instructed her, and she nodded slowly.

She was ashamed of herself, she'd worked in forensics long enough to know everything that Gibbs was talking about was completely true. Law enforcement and military did tend to be extremely harsh or even cruel at times to fellow law enforcement and military personnel. In fact, she was pretty sure Tony's former partner wouldn't be the first story out there about failed back-up.

She knew full well that if that picture had gotten out, Tony's reputation and career would have been in ruins.

"I'm really sorry, Gibbs. I didn't think." She said, and looked down.

Kate didn't say anything. She honestly didn't see what the big deal was, but she was getting the idea that she'd made a mistake in getting Abby's help with that picture. Either way, she felt like Gibbs was blowing this out of proportion.

It was just a picture.

Wasn't it?

Gibbs narrowed his eyes at her, but said nothing while he made plans to make her see his point.

* * *

Two weeks later, Kate overheard two other agents discussing the picture they'd found on the computer.

They were discussing Tony, and not in a favorable light. Some of their comments were along the lines of how DiNozzo couldn't be trusted to watch their backs as the 'little fairy' that he apparently was. There was mention of how if he couldn't be trusted to watch them, then they shouldn't need to watch him.

They were laughing and joking around about it.

Listening to her comments, she understood just why Gibbs was so angry about that picture.

She'd seen those two agents talking to Tony, she knew for a fact that they were friendly with him in the past. To now hear them talking so bad about him because of one little fact that they'd just learned, even one that wasn't real, despite all the years they'd known him...

She went to speak to Gibbs and apologize profusely, and then she went and found Tony to make a much more sincere apology than the one she'd initially made.

Gibbs watched her leave and smiled to himself. Finding Miller and O'Neil, he grinned. "Good job, you two. Get a few drinks on me." He passed them a twenty.

The two had been informed of what Kate and Abby had done with that picture, and had been told that Kate wasn't taking it very seriously. They were former Navy, then they joined the police before going over to the 'dark side' and joining NCIS. They knew full well the attitude law enforcement and military could have, they'd seen what happened when an officer (law or military) was outed, or suspected.

They didn't want that to happen to Tony.


	8. Professional Courtesy

What could have/should have/would have happened if Kort had decided to confront Tony instead of trying to blow him up. You know, this little thing called 'professional courtesy'

* * *

Tony looked up curiously when the elevator opened, fully prepared to go back to finishing the reports so he could go meet up with Jeanne for lunch. He blinked and stood up in surprise when Trent Kort walked off the elevator.

"Kort, what are you doing here?" He demanded, not even bothering to be polite to their visitor.

Gibbs looked up in surprise. He'd never heard Tony be so rude to anyone before, not without good reason, anyway. His mother's side of the family was upper-class English, after all. He also thought the name 'Kort' sounded familiar, probably somebody Tony complained about over the years after an undercover op. He blamed his still spotty memory for not being able to remember more clearly.

"Ah, that's no way to speak to an old friend, now is it?" Kort drawled, coming to a stop in front of Tony's desk.

"Kort, we are so far from being friends... and we had an agreement, that you stayed away from me at work." Tony was not happy. In fact, it was more like a legally binding contract...

"Yes... well, that agreement was also that you would stay away from my ops."

Tony was confused now. "I haven't gone anywhere near any of your ops." He defended. He would remember, Abby had a program that would flag any of the ops he went on that Kort was involved in. CIA tolerated the program because Kort's superiors knew better than to ever put the two of them within five miles of each other. Professional courtesy could only lessen the damage so much.

"Oh? Jeanne Benoit ring any bells?" He asked sarcastically.

Tony looked confused for a moment before his face cleared with realization and anger. "He's a CIA asset. You're his handler." He turned to glare up at the Director's office.

Kort merely nodded and waited for DiNozzo to finished his thoughts. "Which means the whole op was unsanctioned. McGee!" He snapped out, and turned to the confused computer expert. The whole team was watching in confusion.

"Yes?"

"Check these files. Find out why this guy isn't flagged." He said, writing down the file numbers and handing it over.

"Ok... flagged for what?" Tim asked, already doing it. He had no idea what was going on, but he had a feeling that he would find out the sooner he followed instructions.

"Flagged for being a person of interest to another agency. I assume you have a more complete file than what I was able to find?" He asked Kort. He hadn't gone into this op blind, he'd done his homework. Or so he thought... Kort handed it over, looking amused.

After he read it for a moment, he reached for his phone, only for it to ring first. He made a face and bared his teeth in frustration when he saw who it was. "Jeanne! Hi, I was just about to call you!" His voice and his face did not match, at all. He looked tense, while his voice was light and happy. "Yeah... yeah, oh. Um... you didn't tell me your father was meeting us for lunch today." He chuckled nervously even while he glared at Kort, who shrugged and made a 'oops' gesture. McGee was staring at him in horror, having read enough of the file, and Gibbs moved him out of the way to read the file Tony asked him to look up.

Tony grabbed a note-pad and scribbled hastily. 'What did you tell him?' he demanded. Kort gave him a Look that made him glare harder.

"Uh, no, that's fine. Um, listen, I was going to call to tell you that there was an emergency at work, and I'm not going to be able to make lunch. Yeah, I was hoping to postpone to tomorrow if your free, or..." He trailed off and listened for a moment. "I know... I know, I will make it up to you. Yes. Alright, see you tomorrow, then. Yeah... love you, too." As soon as the phone was off, he snarled at Kort. "You told him _everything _about me?"

"His daughter told him about her new boyfriend, and he asked me to check him out. I wasn't expecting it to be you." Tony glared again and punched some numbers into his phone. "Ziva, call security. Have them bring my car around and search it for any... surprises." He said while he waited for his connect.

"Ok... what kind of surprises?" She asked, picking up her desk phone.

"The kind that go Boom and make a mess. If they find anything... consider your life made miserable." He warned Kort, who looked amused again. Nobody noticed Jenny Shepard stepping out onto the mezzanine above the agents heads, watching and listening in curiosity. Tony also wrote out a note for McGee, having the orders in writing would protect him from any potential backlash the orders might cause, to shut Jenny Shepard out of the NCIS computer network until this was resolved. This way, McGee could honestly say he was following orders, he had them written down to prove it.

"Hey, Samantha. It's Tony DiNozzo... No, I'm not on an op for your boss." He laughed after a moment then cleared his throat. "Hey, listen, um speaking of your boss... I need to talk to him. Now. Please, this is urgent. Rouge director's and inter-agency... toe stepping urgent." He said. "Thank you, Sam, and tell your brother that it was my pleasure to help out." He explained to his team really quickly while he was put on hold. "Samantha, the SecNav's secretary. I've been on an op, since a few weeks after you left for Mexico, Gibbs. Jenny assigned me to it, and I had no idea that the main target was a CIA asset. Kort, here, we are lucky decided to come in and talk to me, he usually just tries to blow me up when he thinks I'm in the way of his op. Yes, sir." He suddenly said into his phone.

The team was stunned silent. "Blow him up?" Gibbs asked Kort dangerously. He remembered now... Tony had come back from an op a few years ago with a ruptured ear drum, some busted ribs, and burns all along his back. Tony's only explanation was to complain about a CIA operative named Kort, who he complained liked fire and explosions a little too much. He also remembered that the two agencies actively tried to keep these two away from each other.

"It was once."

"Five times." Tony cut in suddenly and went back to his conversation. "Yes, sir. That is why I am officially reporting the Director of NCIS for misuse of government resources, abuse of power, and anything else that can be found after a thorough investigation." He said into his phone. Gibbs signaled to a nearby agent, who was listening in shock.

"Get security to meet us near the Director's office." He told the other man. He thought he saw movement from the corner of his eye and glanced up to see Jenny disappearing around the corner to her office. "McGee, how far have you gotten to shutting her out?" He asked.

"She's not going to be able to access any computer in the building, not even a personal one. She is also completely locked out of her office. I activated the lockdown procedures on it, the ones used for when sensitive information is being discussed. Nobody is getting in until SecNav says otherwise." He said, proud of himself for thinking of it.

"Good job, McGee." He said, clapping a hand on his shoulder and going to stand by Tony, who was finishing up his phone call.

He took a deep breath. "Jenny Shepard is officially under investigation, and is to be held in interrogation until SecNav himself gets here with Assistant Director Vance."

"Five?" Kort demanded to know, and Tony sighed with an eye roll.

"You stay here." Gibbs told the team and went upstairs to meet the MP's that were now waiting for him. Not exactly who he told the junior agent to summon, but... he was going to have to learn who that agent was and who his team lead was. This was good thinking. And they got here fast...

"Per order of SecNav, Jenny Shepard is under investigation and is to be held in the interrogation rooms for now. One of my agents has already locked her out of her office, so lets go before she gets any ideas." He informed them while he led the way.

"Yes, sir."

Luckily, Jenny hadn't had time to try and do anything or go anywhere, she was too busy arguing with Cynthia about being locked out of her office. Cynthia knew nothing about it, all she knew was that the light had come on beside her computer to signal that lockdown procedure had been initiated. Stepping into the small outer office, Gibbs cleared his throat. Jenny looked up at him and inwardly cringed, but smiled for him, anyway. He wouldn't do anything, she knew he still had feelings for her from Paris.

"Jethro, can I help you with something?" She asked, straightening herself up hastily.

Gibbs looked at her for a moment. "Yeah, you can follow these MP's quietly, and without causing a scene. You are officially under investigation, and will be kept in Interrogation Room One until it is complete, depending on what is found..." He shrugged.

"Under investigation for what?" She asked coolly, angry.

"Abuse of authority and misuse of government resources for a start. For your sake, I hope the investigation doesn't turn up anything else." He motioned to the MP's, who flanked her. One put his hand on her shoulder and started walking, forcing her to start walking as well or be knocked over.

Cynthia sat quietly. "Sir?" She asked, shaken.

"The SecNav and Assistant Director Vance will be here as soon as they can be. Once they get here, McGee will open her office again. Don't worry, I don't think you'll be in any trouble for anything she did. If they ask questions, answer honestly." He advised, and she nodded her agreement before she started pulling up some forms needed for Vance when he arrived. She still had a job to do, and most of that job was anticipating her boss's needs before they knew they had needs.

* * *

Three hours later, Vance, Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis, Gibbs, and Tony were gathered in the Directors office. Gibbs and Tony were just glad that Kort had left not long after Jenny was taken to interrogation under guard. What they were _not _happy with, was that the CIA agent had indeed left Tony with a bomb in his car. Why he decided to actually be professional this time instead of simply trying (and probably succeeding this time) to blow Tony up was actually making Tony slightly paranoid.

"This is a mess." Vance muttered, looking at the hasty report written up by the computer guys tasked with tearing apart the now former Director's digital life. The hard-drive on her personal computer had been torn apart, her work computer was in the process of being given the same treatment, and all her accounts were being hacked. McGee reported that Rene Benoit was flagged as being a CIA person of interest, but was then unflagged. He was able to trace it to the Director's computer.

In the meantime, several teams had been sent to her home to see what she had there. Despite the short amount of time, they had already found all the evidence they needed of her using NCIS to further her own agenda.

From what they had already found, she was obsessed with Rene Benoit, international arms dealer. Why, they had been unable to find out... yet. There had been vague mentions so far of a possible connection between the arms dealer and the death of Shepard's father, but nothing concrete. As far as any of them knew, though, her father had killed himself.

It was then that Tony got a phone call... from Jeanne. "Hey, Jeanne." He greeted, confused but making sure not to project that into his voice. The others couldn't hear her side of the conversation, but they could see the look on Tony's face and hear his side. "I see. *sigh* Jeanne... I was hoping to have this conversation tomorrow, in person." He finally muttered. His shoulders were slumped in resignation. "No... no I'm not denying any of it. Jeanne, I never wanted to hurt you. And I'm sorry you got involved in any of this." He said quietly. He froze after a moment of listening and looked down with his eyes clenched shut. "No. None of it was real." He murmured, and lowered his phone when she hung up.

The other men in the room were silent. "It was very real, wasn't it. You let yourself fall in too deep." Vance murmured. It was a risk with long-term covers, especially ones that ended up being so personal as long-term seduction.

"I tried not to. Jeanne... she wanted to take our relationship further, but I wanted to keep it slow. I mentioned it to Jenny, because she was my handler for the op. She kept pushing me, and pushing me to get closer and closer. She refused to believe me when I said Jeanne didn't know anything about her fathers business... She was always on my case about how little progress I was making. And then, McGee and Ziva... they kept second guessing and questioning almost every order I gave them, and weren't doing their work like they should have been. Jimmy was the only one that... Going to see Jeanne... became my escape. The one bright part of a stressful day... if I hadn't met her for an op, I think a relationship with her might have actually gone somewhere."

"Nobody ever told me there were problems with the team." Gibbs almost yelled, deciding to discuss the rest of that statement with Tony in private. The other two were stunned.

"I went through the records, the case closure rate for your team only dropped one percent in the time Gibbs was in Mexico." Vance said. Tony chuckled bitterly.

"Yeah, no thanks to them, they didn't do much more than complain that I wasn't Gibbs. Then, they were complaining that I was trying to tell them what to do. Nevermind the fact that I was team lead. How you came back didn't help." He glared at Gibbs accusingly.

"I haven't seen any of this." Gibbs was confused, but he winced and looked appropriately apologetic when he thought back to how he announced his return to the team.

"They keep it to a minimum when you aren't around."

"Considering the circumstances, I think I would have been surprised if you didn't fall in too deep." Jarvis said, and gave Gibbs a Look that clearly said 'sort out your team'. Gibbs nodded his understanding.

Tony snorted a laugh. "She was looking at apartments for us to move in together. The other day, she was talking about getting a house, but I think somebody talked to her, because she apologized for moving so fast, and listed out good apartment neighborhoods instead." He muttered. And the three other men with him realized just _how _deep in it he was.

"I think we can add dereliction of duty and negligence to the list of charges against Jenny Shepard. She should never have allowed it to go this far, let alone pushed for it." Vance suggested, looking around at the others. They nodded their agreement.

"Tony, your going to come stay with me for a few days while we sort this out, ok?" Gibbs said, but everyone knew it wasn't a suggestion.

"Yes, Boss." Tony mumbled, laying his head on the table, cushioned by his arms. He was so tired... running this op, on top of his day job wasn't too hard, honestly it was just like having any other relationship. But there had been a few bits of it that required him to be out doing actual undercover work, like at the airport the other day. And, she thought he was a college professor, college professor's have fairly regular hours, unlike NCIS agents who might get called in at way-too-early-o'dark in the morning for a homicide or terrorist alert. All those excuses, making sure nothing was out of place when he went to see her, having to duck and hide the few times he'd walked into the hospital where she worked and seen somebody he knew... dealing with McGee and Ziva's attitude at work...

He'd been relieved when Gibbs came back, because it actually cut back on his workload considerably.

Didn't mean he wasn't mentally exhausted.

Vance took pity on him. "Why don't you go lay down on the couch, get some sleep, you look like you need it." He suggested, and that couch did look pretty comfortable right now... He mumbled his agreement and moved to collapse on it, he was dead to the world in moments.

They watched him for a moment, then there was a knock on the door. Instead of calling out and risk waking up DiNozzo, Gibbs got up to answer the door. "Yes?" He asked, surprised to see Cynthia there.

"Um, sorry to bother you, sirs, but I thought you should see this." She moved into the room with a file in hand. "I remembered glancing through the hour logs to make sure everything was as it should be, and to make sure they were signed and dated properly before taking them back to HR to be filed, and I remembered thinking how odd this was. I meant to get somebody to check through security logs to make sure it was right, but never got around to it until a few hours ago." She handed the file to Jarvis, who glanced through in concern.

"This is DiNozzo's time logs..." He whistled lowly. "He was in the office, or at a crime scene, almost twenty hours a day. Anybody willing to bet the four hours he wasn't, he was with Jeanne Benoit?" He asked the room, although nobody wanted to take that bet. "There are a few days he managed to go home at a reasonable time, a few days off here and there when the whole team was given time off, he must have been with her then, too."

"Cynthia, make sure he's been paid appropriately for all this time, include the time he would have spent on the op. Since this was unsanctioned, I don't think he would have gotten the hazard pay all our undercovers get. And then put him down on the books as having a month mandatory vacation, starting in the next few days. Put it down as half-pay." Vance instructed, and she nodded while grabbing a notepad off of the desk so she could jot the instructions down. When agents were forced to take vacation time, they didn't usually get paid at all because forced time usually meant they had too much overtime on the books. For him to be getting half-pay anyway, Shepard must have really done a number on him.

"Should I send somebody to his apartment to get clothes and things, and take them to your house, Agent Gibbs?" She asked after glancing at the sleeping man on the couch. In the past, she knew Tony spent quite a bit of time at Gibbs house, especially after a hard undercover assignment, or whenever he was physically injured. It hadn't happened since he got back from Mexico, though.

Gibbs blinked. "I would appreciate it, but you don't have to." He answered. Vaguely, memories of time looking after DiNozzo while he was injured, or just mentally exhausted from an op drifted through his head. Just how much had he missed and forgotten?

Cynthia merely smiled. "Some of his things will be waiting in the living room when you get there." She promised. She took the files and went downstairs after pulling out the key to DiNozzo's apartment from the locked safe under her desk. Every agent left a copy of their key there, in case of emergency. Every agent also gave another copy to somebody on their team, also in case of emergency. The fact she was trusted with the keys was a big responsibility, and honor for her. Even Gibbs left his house key there, although Gibbs didn't see the need to lock his door.

Ever.

"Agent Balboa!" She called to the first agent she saw that wouldn't seize the opportunity to leave a prank of some kind behind in Tony's apartment. Some of them would.

She also knew that Balboa wasn't busy right now. His team had been going through cold cases for the past few days while they waited for something to break on a... project they'd been working on. He turned and gave her a smile in greeting. "Yes?" He asked.

"Would you mind running to Tony's apartment and taking some clothes and things over to Gibbs house for them? He's exhausted, and I don't think either of them should deal with it right now. They're still up trying to figure out what Director Shepard has been doing." She confided. She knew full well that news of the unsanctioned op had already spread, everybody knew all about it by now. They didn't know all the details, of course, but they knew Tony was involved and Shepard was under investigation for abuse of authority over it.

"Yeah, sure. It's not a problem." He smiled and took the key when she held it out.

"Thanks, just leave them in the living room, that would be fine."

"Will do." Balboa tipped an invisible hat to her and strode away towards the elevators after calling to his team that he would be back in a bit, running an errand for Cynthia. She shook her head and made her way to HR so she could make sure Vance's instructions for Tony's time log were carried out. One of the new interns from Accounting was there when she went in, and he did not like the idea of carrying out the orders she was given. She put the fear of Director's secretaries into him quick enough, and made sure he understood it was not his decision to make, nor did it have anything to do with him.

"I'll take care of this myself." Cindy promised as she took the file, with the note stuck on the folder. "Thank you, Cynthia." She said, and got to work while Cynthia went back to her own job.

She knocked and let herself in this time. "Agent Balboa is getting Tony's things. One of the Accounting interns was hanging out in HR and tried to quote all kinds of rules and nonsense about why Agent DiNozzo was not going to be paid what he has earned, I sent him off." She said with a sweet smile as she went to check the coffee machine. Seeing that it was empty, she refilled the water and switched out the filter, putting more grounds in. "Director Shepard knew her coffee, whatever else you might have to say about her. I think she had these beans imported straight from... somewhere. I can't remember." She shrugged. Once the coffee machine was on and earning it's keep, she got another note pad. "Do you gentlemen want anything in particular to eat?" She asked.

They looked around at each other, and Gibbs suggested. "We could always get a few pizzas, DiNozzo might put one away by himself." He mused, eyeing his SFA with a critical eye. Now that he was looking... Tony looked like he'd lost some weight recently.

Jarvis shook his head. "There's this new Italian place, oh, about fifteen minutes from here. They do delivery. We can order from there, get a variety. They do pizza, along with the... usual Italian fare." He waved a hand dismissively. "And I hear it's run by Italian immigrants, so you know it'll actually _be_ Italian." He said.

"Sounds good to me." Vance said with a shrug. Gibbs nodded. "Cynthia, do you know the place?" She nodded and was already scribbling away. He smiled, he was definitely going to keep her on, she did a good job. "Call and order whatever you think sounds good. Nobody here has any dietary restrictions?" He checked after a moment, wanting to be sure. Gibbs and Jarvis shook their heads. "Agent DiNozzo?" Vance asked Gibbs, and again he shook his head.

"Not that I can remember." He murmured, brow furrowed as he tried to think.

Cynthia smiled softly. She wasn't surprised he still had holes in his memory. "I'll call down to Dr. Mallard and make sure." She promised. None of them even considered waking Tony up to ask. He really looked like he could use it, after all. When she left, all three sighed and went back to the reports.

Reports that were still coming in.

This was going to be a long week.

* * *

One week later, they finally had all the information. Jenny Shepard blamed Rene Benoit for the death of her father, and wanted revenge. Whether he actually had anything to do with her fathers death or not, that was something only the arms dealer himself could say, as there was no evidence to the contrary. However, she was determined that he killed her father.

It was for this reason, and this reason alone, that she sought out the directorship of NCIS, as it gave her access to resources she would not have at any other position. From there, she bribed and blackmailed information out of various contacts she'd made around the world, including some guy (his superiors were not happy with him...) at the CIA who sold her the complete file the CIA had on him. She knew full well that the daughter knew nothing of her fathers activities, the CIA had her flagged as an innocent. A potential liability on Rene's part, but otherwise she had nothing to do with any of it. She also knew that the CIA had an op in place already.

That they'd had one in place for years. For now, they were directing his activities through Trent Kort to suit American interests, but they were almost ready to take him out of the picture completely and shut down his entire operation. The CIA, when told by Kort, had not been happy to hear that NCIS was sticking their noses in where it didn't belong. They were willing to 'forgive and forget' though, as long as Jenny Shepard was properly dealt with.

The fact that Jenny Shepard knew all of this, and still sent Tony in undercover, was just another mark against her. The Benoit family was threatening to sue NCIS for the heartbreak Jeanne suffered when she found out. (They weren't quite sure how they were going to manage that one, but they would figure out something.) The Legal department was talking to their lawyers, and almost had an agreement worked out so that Jenny was the only one being sued, and not the agency. And most certainly not Tony DiNozzo.

Tony had been sent on vacation two days into the investigation, they ended up making him stay just long enough to make sure he was properly interviewed, paperwork was done, statements were signed, etc. Once they had everything they needed from him, Vance handed him a plane ticket to Hawaii and an envelope with information on a few touristy things he'd been signed up for, and told him to have fun exploring the islands and to enjoy himself, soak up some sun, and to try to leave law enforcement stuff to the locals. He'd even called ahead to the NCIS field office in Pearl Harbor and made sure they knew Tony wasn't allowed anywhere near the offices, although he also asked them to keep an eye out for the exhausted agent.

Before he left, he was made to promise that he would call Gibbs and/or Ducky at least once day to check in, and to bring back a few souvenirs.

They hoped that he would get the rest he needed, and that the time away would help him process everything that happened with Jeanne. Break-ups in real relationships were difficult enough, a break-up in a relationship that wasn't real but you had come to love the target anyway? According to Ducky the day before Tony left, he'd had to get Jimmy's help to drag Tony out of the funk he'd fallen into, and try to get him to see that this wasn't all his fault. He was only doing his job.

That didn't seem to make him feel any better about what he did to Jeanne, for some reason.

So, yes. They were all hoping that plenty of time in the sun would do him some good.

By now, Jenny Shepard was officially fired and awaiting trial, and Leon Vance had been promoted. He was leaving the investigations involving his predecessor to the agents under him, as well as IA and JAG while he tried to sort everything out that Jenny had been doing while in office. Dr. Mallard had come up to his office to speak with him privately and told him of something Jenny had only recently become aware of, and then informed him as the only licensed medical practitioner in the building.

She had cancer. She'd been told that it was too far spread, and had been given a year. She'd declined treatments, as she didn't want to go through that pain for something that wouldn't really make a difference in the end. She'd instead talked about hanging on to her position for as long as possible. It was his professional opinion, that she was planning on going out with a bang, as they said.

Ducky didn't know what she could have been planning, but now that he knew about her obsession with Rene Benoit, he was able to offer up his opinion that she was going to use Tony to lure him out into the open, somewhere where she could easily get at him, and then take him out herself. If he managed to take her down with him... they got a few of the psychiatrists to speak with her, and they all agreed with Ducky's assessment.

However, now that they knew she was sick, that was something else to take into account when she went to trial. Because she would go to trial, no matter how long she had to live. It was just a matter of what kind of facility she was sentenced to. Abuse of authority was very serious, after all. Especially in a law-enforcement/semi-military setting like a federal agency. And the fact that she pulled an innocent civilian woman into the mix...

Vance had a lot to sort through right now, either way. And Gibbs taking his team off the roster for a while wasn't necessarily helping any, either. But, Agent DiNozzo had brought up a few points that made him think that there were some serious underlying issues within that team. Issues that needed to be sorted out, someway or other. So, Gibbs took his team off the roster so he could take care of it without having to deal with investigating a crime on top of it. He'd heard that the techs in the Evidence Garage called security down to Autopsy after being startled by all the yelling coming from there, so it was safe for him to assume that the issues were worse than he initially thought. He never would have thought they were bad enough for half the team to be suspended for insubordination, though...

_The first thing Gibbs did after seeing Tony off at the airport, was to track down Jimmy Palmer. From what Tony said while telling them how he let himself fall in so deep, the ME's assistant was the only one that really stood by and supported Tony while he was gone. _

_"Palmer, you got a moment?" He asked, because Palmer wasn't one of his, and Ducky had berated him more than once about how he scared the boy. _

_"Huh? Oh, um, sure, Agent Gibbs. What can I help you with?" Jimmy asked, confused about what was going on. _

_"What happened with my team while I was in Mexico?" He asked, bluntly. _

_He watched in interest as the confusion cleared off the assistant's face to be replaced by anger, concern, doubt, and apprehension. "Did Tony say something?" He asked slowly. _

_"He mentioned after Kort's visit that the team wasn't pulling their own weight, wasn't taking him seriously, and wasn't following his orders. Then I looked through the time logs. Tony practically lived here while those two would come in late, leave early, take long lunch breaks..."_

_Jimmy nodded. "It's all true, Agent Gibbs. Dr. Mallard and Abby's attitude probably didn't help, either." He muttered. _

_"What?!" Gibbs demanded dangerously. _

_Jimmy made a face and struggled for a few moments over how to tell him. "Dr. Mallard... I think he was just angry with how you left. He... kind of took it out on Tony a little. Abby... well, it might be easier if you looked at the security tapes from her lab." He didn't see it much, he was in the autopsy most of the time, so him and Dr. Mallard were a little disconnected from the goings on at NCIS, unless somebody came down to gossip a little. Not many people were up for standing around in the autopsy room just to gossip. _

_Gibbs got a look on his face and left. He went straight to the security offices for NCIS and demanded to see footage from inside Abby's lab during the months he was in Mexico. He spent the next several hours watching, although he made sure to fast forward the times when nobody was in her lab, or Abby was in her lab alone._

_Frankly, the shrine she put up for him was just a little... disturbing. To say the least. Some of the conversations she had with McGee and Ziva made him angry. Tony was telling them what to do because he was _in charge!_ He wasn't on a power trip, he was in charge and trying to do his job. And he also watched as Tony would walk in behind them and listen during their conversations before walking right back out and announcing his presence as he came back in, pretending he never heard a word. _

_He watched Abby accuse him of trying to be Gibbs, 'Your not Gibbs!', and then once Tony seemed to have gotten a handle on things and started doing things his own way, it changed to 'that's not how Gibbs does things!'. The 'in training' sticker, though... that really made him mad. _

_Of course he wasn't in training, his training ended the moment Gibbs told him 'you'll do' and walked out of MTAC to leave for Mexico with no intentions of ever coming back._

_What was that woman thinking, she knew full well when he recruited Tony that Tony was his replacement when he someday retired. She knew that! So why was she giving him so much grief when he was trying to do the job he was trained to do! With a growl, he got up and went back to his teams desk area, where he practically took his remaining team members by the ears (not literally, that would see him in a 'inappropriate touching' or whatever they were called seminar with HR faster than he could blink. Or they might write him up for abuse towards his subordinates. Come to think of it, he was amazed they hadn't said anything about him head-slapping DiNozzo.) and dragged them to Autopsy. _

_"Gibbs, wha-" McGee protested as he was herded towards the elevator, where Gibbs jammed the button for autopsy. _

_He herded them inside, and commanded. "Stay!" He then disappeared back upstairs, where he gathered Abby and practically dragged her down to autopsy as well. _

_"Alright, tell me _exactly _what happened between the four of you and Tony while I was in Mexico." He demanded, wanting to hear it from their view. He already knew exactly what happened from others and from security footage, he wanted them to tell him now. _

_Ducky immediately looked ashamed. The other three looked confused and a little defiant. Palmer looked pleased, he had a feeling that Tony would be getting a phone call as soon as this meeting was over. _

_"I fear I let my emotions get the best of me, and I took my anger about how you left out on young Anthony. I was short with him when he came down, I did not even notice when he stopped coming down just to chat. Mr. Palmer has since opened my eyes and I have tried to make it up to him." Ducky truly was ashamed of his behavior, but even he had not realized the true depth of how Tony was affected by that period of time until he learned about the undercover op he'd been doing for the Director. _

_Gibbs eyed him for a moment before deciding that Ducky was sincere and there was no need to berate the older man, he already knew what he'd done wrong and taken steps to making it right._

_His gaze turned to the other three, and his glare deepened when none of them looked at all ashamed or like they even cared. _

_Abby was the first to break under his glare. "He was trying to take over! He kept pretending to be you! And he wouldn't bring you back to us!" She whined. Gibbs glare deepened in disbelief. _

_"Taking over? Pretending to be me?" He echoed. "He was doing his job! The one I trained him to do! I left him in charge, you had no right or authority to question that." Gibbs roared. "The last thing a team lead wants or needs is a team that won't follow his orders, especially in the field or in front of other agencies and LEO's." His glare switched to McGee and Ziva. "And believe me, he will be asked why he didn't put you two on report for insubordination." He promised. _

_Jimmy moved towards his small desk area and pulled a file from the bottom drawer. "He did write them up. It just never went anywhere." He said quietly, and handed it over to Gibbs, who flipped through it and glared at nothing when he realized what must have happened and why none of these were actually filed. It was a ploy by Jenny to drive Tony further towards Jeanne._

_"What is all this?" He asked them dangerously. _

_"He was playing at being in charge, we were putting him in his place." McGee said boldly, continuing with that belief despite everything Gibbs had just said. _

_"He is your superior officer!" Gibbs shouted, he loud that the employees above them in the evidence garage heard him. "He _is and was _in charge! When I am not around, he is in charge, whether I am on 'sick leave' or not!" He knew full well that Jenny had never filed his retirement package, instead she'd put him down as being on paid sick leave. When he first found out, he was angry, but now he just couldn't bring himself to be. It would have been much more difficult to come back if he had to come out of an official retirement. McGee and Ziva cringed back when he yelled. "What, did you think that one of you could do a better job? McGee, you're a Junior Agent, barely off probationary status! David, you're not even an agent! You're a liaison officer who shouldn't even be on my team because of the security risk you pose! DiNozzo has been my Senior Field Agent and second in command since before Kate joined us!" He breathed hard for a moment and looked at them, furious. _

_"I expect better. From each of you once Tony returns from vacation. There will be no more disrespect. Tony is the best agent I have ever worked with, he's been an exceptional Senior Field Agent for years, an excellent partner in the field, and he was an excellent team leader while I was gone. _Despite _the attitude, insubordination, and disrespect from his team, an unhelpful director who was using him for her own personal agenda, and running an undercover operation at the same time. Do you all understand me?" He demanded of them, glaring full force. None of them thought to disagree, despite any personal feelings or opinions they held of Tony. _

_"In the meantime, you two are suspended for two weeks for insubordination, and you will be attending remedial classes on the chain of command in the meantime." When they stood there gaping, he snapped. "GO! I don't want to see or hear from you for the next two weeks!" After they scurried out, he shot Abby a disappointed glare, and left without another word._

_He went straight to the Director's office, handed the new director the file with all the write-ups for McGee and Ziva, informed him of his team's suspension, and asked for the rest of the week off. He told the director he had some personal stuff to work through, he suspected that Gibbs was going to sulk around in his basement (hmm, he should maybe head over there to see if the rumors of a boat down there were true) and think over how things with his team got so bad. _

So, now his top MCRT team was out of commission for the next two weeks. He already had some work lined up for Gibbs when he came back on Monday, but with two of his team on suspension and the third (who also happened to be the mans second in command) on mandatory vacation, he couldn't exactly run an investigation with just him. Well, Vance supposed that he could assign a couple TDA's and somebody else's SFA could probably step up and fill DiNozzo's spot until the two were back, and then the SFA could continue until DiNozzo himself came back, but he didn't feel the need to. He had enough work set aside to keep Gibbs busy.

He almost cackled at the thought of what Gibbs would be coming back to, but kept it to himself, he didn't want to scare Cynthia, after all. That woman was turning out to be a godsend.

(There were a few times when he'd wondered if she was telepathic, or if she'd been hanging out with Gibbs after work. He just didn't see how she was so good at knowing what he wanted, almost before he knew he wanted it, otherwise. When the coffee ran out (he really, really liked the blend that Shepard had imported), she'd been right there with a new box, and told him that she hadn't cancelled the order for more, merely changed it to be in his name, and with his bank information on the bill.

He'd looked at how much it cost, but decided that it would be worth it to have good coffee on hand. He didn't think he could tolerate going back to normal cop-shop coffee, just a few cups of this good stuff had spoiled him forever, it seemed. Oh well, he was the director now, he figured he could afford to treat himself to a little something like decent coffee at work. The trick now, would be to keep Gibbs from drinking all of it. Hmm, maybe he should charge Gibbs for every cup of _his _coffee that the other man drank. That way he wasn't going broke trying to feed the other man's caffeine addiction. He would much rather go broke feeding his _own _caffeine addiction.)

Speaking of Cynthia... "I have the final reports from the lab over all the evidence taken from Director Shepard's home, as well as the final reports from the computer guys, and here is the first report from the instructors over-seeing Agent McGee and Officer David's remedial training. I have already emailed copies of the evidence reports to Secretary Jarvis's office." She laid everything out on his desk as she said what it was. And then she picked up his coffee mug and refilled it before leaving as quickly as she came in.

Oh, yeah. She wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

The next time Anthony DiNozzo walked in the doors of NCIS, he was tanned, his grin was easy and real, he looked well rested, he looked like he'd gained some much needed weight, and he was bearing gifts.

Naturally, the first place he stopped was at Gibbs desk to drop off the promised souvenir's, as well as report in to his direct superior, and then he was off to report in to Vance and find out what happened with Jenny while he was gone. Because it was supposed to be vacation, everybody at NCIS that he was in contact with during the past month was forbidden from telling him anything about the investigation into her activities. He had been told about Ziva and Tim's punishment, and he was relieved that something had been done, although he wasn't really sure if it would fix anything. After reporting in to Vance and finding out what happened with the former director, Vance was given his own souvenir's, and then Tony had to answer for an incident that the Pearl Harbor office had called Vance about, two weeks into his vacation.

_"Drug traffickers, Agent DiNozzo? What were you doing to get held hostage by drug traffickers, during a raid on their hide-out by local law enforcement, when you were supposed to have nothing to do with law enforcement while you were there?" Vance asked dryly. _

_"It wasn't my fault." Tony said plainly, pointing a finger in Vance's general direction. Behind him, Gibbs coughed, although it sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "I was just going for a jog, minding my own business, and suddenly I was in the middle of a fire-fight between police and a group of thugs. I just happened to be closer to the thugs than I was law enforcement."_

_"Uh-huh." Vance shuffled the report he'd been sent on the incident in question. "Tell me, Agent DiNozzo, do you always carry your side-arm plus backup when you go for a jog? And a knife?" He asked dryly. _

_"Uh, yeah." Tony said slowly, trying not to fidget. "I've worked law enforcement for years, I've been on plenty of undercover ops, I've taken down the Mob in Philly. I've learned to always be armed." He shrugged, like it was perfectly normal. "And I never go _anywhere _without a knife. Boss would take me to the mats if he found out I did." He jerked a thumb behind him at Gibbs, who made a noise of agreement. _

_Vance let that line of questioning go, he'd worked undercover before, he supposed he could understand that. "And you regularly run in abandoned, out-of-the-way industrial complexes in strange cities?" He asked next._

_"Er- yes?" Tony had no idea how to really explain that one in a way that Vance might buy. _

_"And you didn't hear the gun-battle until you were right in the middle of it?" Vance asked again. By this point, Tony was making a very large effort to not turn around and stare at his boss incredulously. He didn't think he'd ever heard his Boss express so much amusement before. Sure, he'd laughed, but never like this. Honestly, though, his boss sounded like he was dying or something, with how hard he was having to work not to laugh._

_"I had headphones on, I didn't hear it over the music." Tony answered promptly. _

_Vance raised an eyebrow. "None of the LEO's on the scene report seeing you with any kind of music device, or with headphones." He pointed out. _

_"I- uh... lost them? When Thug 1 and Thug 2 grabbed me?" Vance gave him a 'do you really think I'm buying this?' look. According to the police report, no headphones or music device had been found anywhere near the scene, either. _

_He sighed and dragged his hand down his face. "How did you even find out about the drug raid, DiNozzo?" He asked. Tony just grinned._

_"It's my DiNozzo charm." He said simply. Vance sighed and looked to Gibbs for help, but Gibbs just raised his arms in a 'don't look at me' pose. _

_"You know what? Forget it, just... go. Get back to work." He said tiredly. He didn't have the energy to deal with it right now, not after the month he'd had putting out Jenny Shepard sized fires. Tony mock-saluted him and left, whistling. He dropped Cynthia's present on her desk with a smile and went on his way. _

_"Gibbs..." Leon said, warningly. _

_"He's the best at what he does, Leon. Although, he is a trouble magnet. Always has been, probably always will be." Gibbs said fondly, and left to go see how his team was interacting. Tony had brought souvenirs back for Tim, Ziva, and Abby even, despite how they treated him recently. _

Vance still had no idea just how DiNozzo got involved in that situation.

Cynthia chose that moment to come in with a new stack of paperwork for him, leftover from everything with Jenny. Momentarily, he almost found himself wishing that Kort had just done what he normally did and tried to blow DiNozzo up, at least then he would have less paperwork right now. As quickly as the thought came, it went. As much as he hated paperwork, he hated losing agents under his command even more.

Elsewhere...

Trent Kort got off the phone with a buddy in NCIS and grinned. If changing things up once in a while caused this much chaos, he was going to have to do it more often.


	9. Can't Happen

If somebody walked by and intervened when Ziva held a gun to Tony's head while they were in Israel?

_Hebrew_

* * *

Gibbs was walking with Vance and Director David down the hallway when they heard shouting, some Hebrew mixed with English from up ahead. The three men glanced at each other in concern before they started walking faster towards all the noise.

"Eli?" Vance asked, wanting to know if the Mossad Director at least had some idea of what was going on.

"I have no idea." Was the answer. "Through here." He said, opening a door at the end of the hallway and gesturing for the Americans to go first.

All three froze at what they saw. A Mossad officer was trying to drag Ziva David away from Tony DiNozzo, while another was crouched over Tony where he was laying on the floor. The other officer was clearly making sure he was alright and trying to act as a shield in case Ziva tried to use the gun in her hand, a gun she was still pointing in Tony's general direction.

Ziva was alternating between yelling at the officers who'd gotten between her and her current target in Hebrew, and yelling at Tony about Micheal Rivkin in English, while the officer in front of her was yelling back at her in Hebrew. The officer on the floor alternated between his own comments towards both her and his partner in Hebrew, and trying to talk to Tony in English. Tony was arguing with him about letting him get up.

"Stop!" Eli barked, unable to believe what he was seeing. The events were clear from where he was standing. Tony DiNozzo was injured, unarmed, and lying on the ground while another officer tried to shield him, while Ziva was being dragged away from him, gun in hand.

The fighting Mossad officers froze, while the one on the ground with Tony visibly relaxed, and started helping him up now that the danger was past. He still kept himself between Ziva and the NCIS agent, though. Tony looked tense, and was eyeing Gibbs, who looked like he was about to learn how to actually spit fire. Gibbs kept his silence, though.

For now.

"What is going on here?" Eli asked, dangerous. "In English, for our guests, please." He added when the officers started speaking in Hebrew. He wasn't sure how much Hebrew the Americans knew, if any, beyond greeting phrases. He held up a hand and shot his daughter a glare when she went to speak. As she was involved, he didn't want to hear from her, not yet.

"Ah, yes, sir. Sorry. We were leaving for our next assignment when we found them. Agent..." He stopped to glance at Tony, realizing that he had no idea what the American agents name was. He only knew he was an agent because his badge was on his belt.

"DiNozzo. Agent Anthony DiNozzo." Tony said quietly.

"Thank you. Agent DiNozzo was on the floor with Officer David standing over him, pointing her gun at his face." The officer said quickly.

"I demanded that she back away, she refused. She told us to leave, that it was none of our concern. I got between them and pulled her away, she resisted and started yelling about how he murdered Officer Rivkin?" The other one took over the explanation. The two glanced at Tony, uncertain, but they also knew that he would not be roaming about their headquarters so freely if it had truly been cold-blooded murder like Ziva's rant had been making it out to be.

"It was self-defense." Tony insisted, not looking at Ziva, instead he was watching his boss, and trying to decide who Gibbs was angry at, him or Ziva. "I went to speak with Ziva about... something that came up in a case, and found him there, instead. I moved to arrest him under suspicion of the murder of a federal agent, and he fought." He didn't know why he was defending himself to these two, but he supposed that it would be better to have all the facts out there, especially with Vance right here. He didn't want to be the reason relations between Mossad and NCIS broke down over this.

"And it was Officer Rivkin who broke your arm?" One of them inquired, tilting his head. Tony nodded.

Eli breathed in and out several times, trying to regain control of his temper. He glanced around at where he knew the security cameras for this area were, and barked orders. "_Take Ziva to a holding cell to calm down, and then have the security tapes looked at." _The two officers nodded their agreement and moved to flank Ziva, who protested. "_Ziva. Do not shame me further." _Eli hissed, and she allowed herself to be taken away with a glare towards Tony, who watched stoically. "Did she hit your arm, at all, Agent DiNozzo?" Eli asked, and Tony shook his head.

"No offense to you, sir, but I'm really not enjoying your country." Tony quirked a small grin in Eli's direction as Gibbs moved to his side.

Eli huffed a laugh. "No, I do not imagine you would be." He shook his head and gestured for the Americans to follow him back to his office, where he, Vance, and Gibbs had just come from while they discussed the situation Rivkin's death at Tony's hands caused.

Vance and Gibbs were arguing for them to just drop it, that Tony had gone to that apartment to do his job, and had continued to do his job admirably the entire time he was there. Grudgingly, Eli agreed to drop the matter. And then they left his office to go for a walk after leaving instructions for Ziva and Tony to be found and brought back to the conference room the American agents had been allowed to use during their stay. That was when they heard the disturbance.

"Leon, if she comes back to NCIS after this, she's not coming back to my team." Gibbs told the Director straight up. "Not after that display." His team needed to be able to trust each other at all times. It was clear that Ziva no longer trusted Tony, she just tried to kill him. And Tony would never trust her again, if he ever did. He was very slow to trust, and once it was gone... Tony looked at him, startled, but didn't say anything.

Not yet.

Vance snorted. "I'm wondering what kind of charges I can get pressed against her. Since she's technically only a liaison officer, NCIS doesn't even pay her salary. Well, we pay the difference between what Mossad pays her, and what an agent at her rank would be paid." He amended. "But, she assaulted an American Federal Agent, who, it can be argued, is here on a diplomatic assignment. I might be able to swing some sort of legal action, but whatever punishment that comes will probably be here in Israel. I'm going to have to report this incident to SecNav, and I think I can safely say he's going to consider her liaison position to be non-existent after this." He assured Gibbs. If she came back to States with them, she wouldn't have a job with them.

Did agents fight and beat each other up from time to time in a fit? Sure. It was a regular occurrence, actually.

Which was why, those agents were given harsh penalties and punishments if those fights occurred outside the training rooms, and outside of the supervision of one of the combat instructors at the Yard. Even then, the agents both had to be able to return to their regular duties afterward, or they penalized as if they did fight outside the training room. One of his predecessors set it up that way, knowing that they worked a high stress job, and sometimes tempers flared to the point where words just wouldn't cut it. This was dangerous for a bunch of highly skilled federal agents, so they made sure it was company policy for any 'grudge matches' to be supervised.

If things still weren't settled by a good clean fight, then other actions might need to be taken through the agents team lead, or support staff within the building. If need be, agents had been transferred to other field offices in the past.

However...

Throwing an injured man to the ground, and holding a gun to his head? That was so far outside of acceptable bounds... if she were an American citizen and a full employee of NCIS, Vance would have slapped her with a suspension while IA decided if they wanted to charge her with Assault on a Federal Agent, and anything they could possibly think of.

Inside the Director's office, Eli collapsed into his desk chair and rubbed a hand down his face. "_Why did I ever have children?" _He muttered. First Tali was killed when she was still young, then everything with Ari... and now Ziva attacked a foreign agent in their own headquarters. Well, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. He turned to his computer and switched to the buildings internal security feed. As director, it was his job to know everything that happened in his agency, so he had full access to security from his computer. While the officers got the tapes pulled from Security, he would watch it all from here so they could start going through the diplomatic mess Ziva just created.

"Agent DiNozzo, you have been very quiet." He said, glancing up at Tony, whose side Gibbs had not left, and whose silence was beginning to concern Gibbs. Tony had earned his respect earlier in the interrogation room when he turned the interrogation around on him, and got him to reveal some things that he had not intended on _ever _revealing.

"Uh, yeah, I've just been thinking." Tony said. He just wanted to go home.

"Don't think too hard." Gibbs teased lightly, a small smile aimed at him to remove the sting from the words. A hand settled on the back of Tony's neck and squeezed, causing Tony to close his eyes and sigh quietly. Gibbs hadn't touched him like this since before Mexico. It was one of the only sure ways of calming him down when he was stressed out or over-thinking something. Head slaps were for getting his attention back on topic.

Tony rolled his eyes after a moment. "I knew Ziva didn't take Rivkin's death well, I mean..." He huffed a laugh and made a vague motion with his hand, but didn't continue. "But... she heard everything that was said in the interrogation room. I don't understand... I thought we were partners, friends. Why would she...?" He asked. "In her apartment, sure. Ok, I'd just killed a guy in there. Doesn't mean I like that she did it, but... but here, after hearing everything in there?" He sounded lost, and Gibbs hand squeezed lightly.

He turned his back to the Director's and focused on Tony, even going so far as to back them up to the far side of the room so the two of them could have some privacy. Vance tactfully drew Eli's attention away from his agents, recognizing this as a conversation neither of them really needed to hear. "You know none of what she did is in anyway your fault. Rivkin, you were doing your job. He's the one who attacked you, right? And he's the one who stayed in America after being ordered to leave. Ziva's attitude right now, is not your fault." Gibbs emphasized with a light pat on the back of Tony's head before his hand went back to it's spot on the back of Tony's neck.

"But, I had to have done something, right? It's clear she has no respect, I'm not sure if she even _likes _me, otherwise why else would she... I mean, I know I act the clown, do you think I took it too far? Is that why she... she wouldn't have done that if she ever trusted me, would she? I mean, was it something I did or didn't do?" Tony was trying to make sense of this in his mind, and Gibbs let him talk, just like he did that time when Tony was in custody by the FBI.

Unlike then, he didn't just give him a light head slap to get his head back in the game.

"She is a highly trained officer in Mossad, and we trained her to be one of the best investigators in NCIS. If she couldn't see you after all these years, than she was willfully blind. That's on her, not on you. You and I both know full well why you act the way you do sometimes, and there is nothing wrong with that." Gibbs said, his dark tone of voice promised that somebody was going to be in pain soon if he had any say in it.

"Yeah, but... maybe I took it too far?" Tony asked.

"You. Did. Nothing. Wrong." Gibbs reiterated. "There is nothing you took too far. If she could not see you, that is on her." He repeated himself, something he generally hated doing, but seemed to do a lot with Tony sometimes.

Tony looked down. "What now?" He asked, glancing back up. He looked remarkably like a little boy who didn't know what to do after getting in trouble and was asking his father for help.

"Now, we go home after the Director's figure out what they're doing, and we find a new member for our team." Gibbs said quietly. Ziva was the only one they hadn't picked themselves.

It hadn't been long after hiring Tony that Gibbs realized that his new agent had some serious trust issues. There had been a few agents before Kate, they hadn't lasted more than a few months with him. In part, they just hadn't fit with what Gibbs was looking for in his agents. He had two stages they had to 'pass' to be considered a member of his team, if they could handle him, and if they could gain Tony's trust. Even a small bit of it.

Gibbs managed to scare them all off before they ever reached the second stage.

Kate was the first one that Gibbs knew would not scare off, and she hadn't. In fact, Tony was the one who recommended she stick around, which was how Gibbs knew she'd passed Tony's test. McGee, he just hung around until Tony finally laid the transfer paperwork on his desk to make Tim an official part of their team, and not just an occasional asset to the team. Ziva was the first agent in a long time that had not passed both tests.

She was forced on them by Jenny, and her Mossad training meant she didn't scare away, but Tony never fully trusted her. Not like he came to trust Tim and Kate. That doesn't mean he didn't come to trust her over time. Which made this whole thing worse in Gibbs opinion.

If DiNozzo had never come to trust Ziva, he would not be taking this betrayal so hard. He would not be taking her lack of trust or regard for him so hard. He would not be trying to figure out where he went wrong like this.

It didn't help that this had been such a rough few years, either. First, Kate dies. Then, he gets framed for murder. Gibbs got blown up and ran off to Mexico with no more than a 'you'll do', which apparently his two team members took to mean that he was passable. So, Tony got sucked into Jenny's vendetta with 'the Frog'. Gibbs came back from Mexico for Ziva, no explanation, no nothing, and didn't even bother to call Tony to let him know he was coming or to make sure her current team leader even knew there was a big problem. The way he came back for good, oh, yeah, that didn't damage Tony's trust in him at all, that didn't blow a big hole in their relationship.

Then, there was the blow-up (literally, Tony's car...) when the Frog himself came to town to see his daughter, and Jeanne found out that Tony was a federal agent sent to spy on her father through her. He knew that Tony had let himself fall for her, he was pretty sure everyone knew it. Then Jenny died, and that was all on her. None of that was Tony's fault, not when he was following her orders and she went out there to die. Of course, the new director didn't see it that way when he sent Tony away and reassigned their team, putting everyone except Tony in positions where they could hunt for a mole. Being Agent Afloat might as well have been Tony's 'time-out'.

Tony was the only one Gibbs was actually pushing to get back, not that it did any good, because Vance refused to bring him back. Gibbs had finally ended up going over Vance's head and taking it straight to the SecNav, who had actually read Tony's file and agreed with Gibbs assessment of how Jenny died, and that Tony's talents were wasted playing cop on a ship.

And now this... this had been a rough few years. It seemed like just when things were starting to calm down, something else happened that threw everything up in the air, and made things tense both at work and at home.

"When we get home, I'm going to put in paperwork for you to have a week off. Take the time to work some things out in your head, relax, give yourself time to get back in the game. You can take your room at my house." He squeezed Tony's neck again when it looked like he might protest. "I'm gonna treat this as you coming back from a rough undercover assignment." He promised, knowing that Tony couldn't protest that. He always needed a few days to truly get himself together again.

They learned that the hard way after Tony came back one time, insisted he was fine, and then almost snapped another agents arm in half when he was startled.

"Come on." Gibbs said, and used to the hand across Tony's neck to propel him forwards, back towards the Director's who were hashing out the political nightmare Ziva caused them. They were trying to work out what to do about it in a way that wouldn't create a lot of backlash for Mossad, and so that NCIS didn't lose face, either, for just letting it go. He was pretty sure Vance was about ready to call SecNav, let him deal with the politics of this situation.

Eli knew that he needed to punish her somehow, and it needed to be big and public enough that other agencies wouldn't think that kind of behavior was the norm with Mossad officers. That would lose any or all inter-agency cooperation they had world-wide. But, he also didn't want to make it too public that it sent the wrong message to his own officers.

Vance wanted the maximum punishment available, and he wanted it to be as public as was humanly possible, which was quite a bit considering media and whatnot.

By the time the two directors worked out a solution that they both felt they, and their agencies/governments, could live with, Gibbs had emptied the coffee pot in the office at least three times, and even Tony was on his second cup of coffee. The two agents had merely stood to the side, the only time Gibbs hand left the back of Tony's neck, grounding him, was when he went to refill his coffee cup.

When Vance glanced over, he was pleased to see that DiNozzo looked more settled, and figured he could expect to see a leave of absence request pass his desk once they got back.

"Leon, I will keep you informed." Eli said after Vance signaled to his agents that they were leaving. "Agent DiNozzo, I hope that your next trip to my country is more enjoyable for you. Agent Gibbs, I thank you for looking after my daughter, and apologize for any trouble she's caused." He said, reaching out to shake the American's hands.

Tony acknowledged the Directors words with a nod of his head, but didn't say anything. He doubted he would ever return to Israel unless it was for work, and even then, he would have no need for that. His team was a criminal investigative team, so they didn't have much to do with anti-terrorism efforts, even though they'd taken out their fair share of terrorist cells over the years. They didn't do much foreign relations either, unless one of their cases crossed international borders.

Eli didn't say anything more, instead he showed them out of his office, where an officer was waiting to escort them out of his building, where a driver would be waiting to take them back to the military airfield, where their plane was waiting to take them back to America.

On the plane, Tony was pushed onto a bench, and Gibbs sat beside him, leaving the other bench free for the Director to claim. As soon as they were in the air, Gibbs practically ordered Tony to sleep, and it wasn't long before his head was tilted sideways and resting on his bosses shoulder.

Vance pretended not to notice anything, knowing that Gibbs would not be pleased about it being pointed out, not when he was in Papabear mode.

He was almost glad things worked out like they did, although he wasn't happy with Ziva's actions in attacking his agent. And he knew that Gibbs would probably shoot him if he ever said any of this out loud.

"I will assign some-"

"No." Gibbs cut him off. "Send us files. We pick the new agent for our team. That's the best way to go, Ziva was forced on us, and look how that turned out. Tony won't trust anybody else after this, it needs to be somebody we pick." His arm had wrapped protectively around his agents shoulders, and he stared Vance down.

Vance studied the two of them, knowing that Gibbs in Papabear mode wasn't a Gibbs to be argued with. He sighed. "Very well. I'll put some personnel files together for you to go over. How long are you making him take leave for?"

"A week for now. We'll see where he is after that." Gibbs answered, looking down at Tony.

"He going to be at your place?"

Gibbs nodded. He was worried. This wasn't the first partner to betray Tony, not at all. His partner in Baltimore ended up being dirty, and there was always something that happened in the two departments he was with before that to make him move on. There was a problem with one of the agents on Gibbs team when he first joined, she didn't last much longer, though, as she was fired. Even Gibbs had betrayed Tony's trust. Several times over the years, in fact.

When he left and retired to Mexico, for one. The way he came home from Mexico and just tossed Tony aside like he did without explanation or even a 'good job'. He wasn't exactly there when Tony was going through everything with Jeanne, instead he was angry with Tony for not telling him about the op, without even considering that Tony was following orders. For once. _Everything_ that happened with Jenny... the way she used his agent and he either didn't notice or didn't care enough to pay enough attention to notice... The way he treated Tony sometimes on an almost daily basis anymore.

Honestly, he was shocked that Tony was still around. Gibbs hadn't been there nearly as much as he used to be, as much as he should have been.

He was worried about how this latest thing was Ziva was affecting him.

He debated with himself over whether or not he should take a few days to be with him. He knew that Tony would start brooding, and then he would start over-thinking the entire situation, and then the self-blame would start up again no matter what Gibbs would say when he came home from work. Tony would have had hours with those thoughts running through his head, making it more and more difficult for Gibbs to get through to him.

"I will take the week as well, otherwise he'll start thinking too much if left on his own." He said absently, looking down at his agent. Tony would be able to help with the boat, or maybe he should start Tony on a project of his own. Over the years of staying with Gibbs whenever he was injured or needed to get his head on straight again, he'd become pretty good at woodwork himself. There were times when he needed Gibbs' help with something, but he was pretty good at it. In fact, he'd made his TV stand in his apartment while he was staying with Gibbs after Kate died. It was solid, and well-made, if a little rough around the edges.

Leon studied him for a moment. "Alright. As soon as we land, we'll go into the office long enough for you to fill out paperwork, then you and DiNozzo can go home." He instructed. Gibbs nodded.

He was glad those officers were walking by, and got between Ziva and Tony. He had a feeling that if they hadn't, he would never know any of that happened. Tony would go back to his apartment, sit and brood, and come to all wrong conclusions that her actions were somehow his fault.

That just couldn't happen. He would lose Tony DiNozzo if that happened.

That just couldn't happen.


	10. Two Weeks

Tony slammed the phone down and hit a few keys on his keyboard, causing the printer to start spitting out pages a moment later.

Gibbs looked over in concern. He hadn't seen Tony this worked up in a while. Whatever it was, probably wouldn't bode well for him or the rest of the team. He briefly debated asking what was wrong, but decided to live in the land of ignorance for as long as he could on this one. Tony would let him know what was going on before it blew up in their faces.

Hopefully.

He was pretty sure.

I mean, Tony could be pretty vindictive sometimes, but he would never leave them hanging like that.

Right?

Gibbs had just made up his mind to ask his second what was wrong when Tony snatched the papers out of the printer, wrote in a few places and stomped over towards Gibbs desk with a glare. Kate and McGee were watching, wide-eyed. They'd never seen Tony acting like this, and certainly not towards the Boss.

Gibbs froze, he'd only been subjected to that glare twice since Tony started working for him, and at least five times while they were in Baltimore before Tony accepted his job offer, but he actively tried to make sure he wasn't on this end of it again. "Something wrong, DiNozzo?" He asked, cautiously.

Tony didn't say a word, instead he dropped the stack of papers on his desk and leaned over it, waiting for Gibbs to get the point and look at what he'd been 'handed'. Gibbs looked down and scanned the front page, then stopped and read through it more slowly. "Ah." He said.

Tony didn't say anything, only nodded slowly.

The top paper was a notice from HR that they'd been receiving complaints from Metro PD about Gibbs' driving habits. As such, his entire team was now being required to attend a 'safe-driving' seminar*. Until then, all their licenses were to be considered revoked.

Gibbs flipped to the second page and closed his eyes in horrified resignation when he realized that the second page was a forwarded copy of an email from the Director to HR, promising that they would be at that seminar, he would make sure of it. He flipped through the rest of the stack, and it was all paperwork that he needed to fill out to take his team off rotation for the duration of the seminar. He almost smiled when he saw that Tony had already filled out most of it, but didn't because he knew that something like that would have Tony challenging him to a spar, and not holding back or goofing off for the audience.

Speaking of... he glanced up from the papers and winced at the look on Tony's face.

He was probably going to get that challenge anyway at this rate.

He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see the Director settle in at the rail of the walk above them, watching his and Tony's face-off (the Director always found it amusing how Tony seemed to be the one who was really in charge of the team sometimes).

Clearing his throat, he glanced through everything to see if it said how long this seminar was supposed to last, and where it was, and almost slammed his head against the desk when he realized it started in two days, and it was all the way down in Florida. Why HR was sending them to a seminar in _Florida _was beyond him. Hm, something to take up with them later on.

"Plane?" He asked quietly, hiding a wince when Tony actually _growled_. He remembered, too late, that Tony had plans tonight. Plans that didn't involve his television or a movie. He was going to have to do something big to make up for this.

"It takes off in six hours, we need to be at the airport in four if we want to get through security in time. Since all of our licenses are now revoked," Kate and McGee's eyes widened when they heard this, as Tony hadn't bothered to keep it down, and it wasn't hard to over-hear anything within their area, "the Director has arranged drivers for all of us to go home, get packed, and get to the airport." He finished and stalked to his desk, where he started packing his bag with some paperwork he could do on the plane.

"Uh, Boss... wha-" McGee started to ask, but Tony interrupted him while Gibbs started to finish filling out the paperwork without a word.

"Go home, pack for two weeks in hot weather. We're being sent on an HR seminar trip," Another glare aimed at Gibbs. "About safe driving habits. Until we complete it and pass their requirements, HR has seen fit to revoke _all _of our drivers licenses, so we have been assigned drivers from here, to our houses, and then to the airport."

"What?" Kate demanded. "Do they have any idea what kind of black mark that will leave on our driving records?" She would deal with the rest of what Tony said later.

"Oh, don't worry. They have assured me that the only one getting a black mark from this is the Boss." Another glare. "Come on, we gotta be at the airport in four hours. Don't worry about paperwork, Boss is handling it. And, our drivers have our plane tickets." And he walked towards the elevator without another word, leaving them to scramble to grab some work of their own for the plane ride and follow.

As soon as they disappeared into the elevator, Gibbs scrambled to grab his phone, and made a few phone calls while he finished filling out the paperwork, handing it off to the HR secretary that just _happened _to be hanging out nearby. The first call was to the Director, to try and get his team out of this, but the Director was firm, and made it a direct order that they go, and that they (Gibbs) learn something from this. His next call was to somebody that he hoped could help him make this up to Tony, so that he could be assured of his continued existence once they returned from Florida. As soon as the calls were placed, he gathered his own things and left to do his own packing.

* * *

Four hours later, he made it through security and found the gate the team was leaving from. He winced when he noticed Tony's still-stony expression and the way the man was completely focused on the file in his lap, even though he wasn't really reading through it.

"So... now that we're all here..." Kate said slowly, eyeing her boss and her partner. "Why were all of our licenses revoked again? And why do we _all _have to attend this seminar when _he's _the reckless driver?" She tilted her head towards Gibbs, not wanting to say anything else and risk getting in trouble. But, it seemed like the boss was the one in trouble here... which was strange.

"The email from HR said that they wanted to head off any bad habits we might pick up in our driving through exposure. In other words, they feel like Gibbs is a bad influence on us." Tony said, still not looking up.

"Ok... but why go so far as to revoke our licenses?" Tim asked. His curiosity overrode his fear of Gibbs, and of Tony at the moment.

"Because they want to make sure we actually pay attention and do as we're told. Apparently we have gained a reputation among HR staff of being uncooperative." Tony finally looked up and gave Gibbs a dead-stare. Although, he had to admit that he was already uncooperative with HR type people long before he met Gibbs. "Therefore, they are dangling a carrot to make us cooperate with them."

"They do know I can just hack into the DMV and reinstate our licenses?" Tim asked, snorting. Ignoring the fact that hacking was illegal and he was careful to only hack into government systems (except the FBI) when he had written orders or a warrant.

"Hence why they waited until the last possible minute to inform us, and the scramble to pack and get here to go through security with plenty of time to spare." Tony answered dryly.

The other three stared at him in shocked surprise. "Wow. Have we really gotten this predictable?" Kate asked the men she worked with. They all shrugged.

This wasn't the first seminar they were required to be at that they managed to somehow get out of. Whether it be because a case came up that required their attention, or a 'family emergency' back in Indiana, their names suddenly disappearing from the attendance list with no explanation or digital trail to follow... Tim and Kate had gotten just as good as Tony and Gibbs at avoiding HR seminars, despite the short amount of time they'd been with the two senior agents.

"But, even if we don't cooperate, and they refuse to reinstate our licenses, I can just hack in and do it myself, anyway." Tim said.

"Which is why among the paperwork they sent me for Gibbs to fill out, was a compliance agreement for each of us. Basically, Gibbs agreed to take full responsibility for any actions we take before, during, and after the seminar. If you do that, they will figure it was you, and Gibbs will be the one getting in trouble for it." Tony said absently while he studied the picture in front of him. Tim looked at Gibbs, horrified, and Gibbs nodded.

At the time, he'd thought it was a strange form to be in the pile, but hadn't thought too much about it. Even if he had, it wasn't like he could have gotten away with hiding it to be destroyed later, not when the secretary that took the stack checked each paper to make sure everything was there that she was told would be.

Yeah... they got way too predictable.

After sitting around for a couple of hours, during which Kate left to go find food for the team, they were finally called to board. A quick wave of their badges earned wide-eyed looks at the guns on their belts from the flight attendants, and they were rushed through the doors to find their seats before the other passengers could see and raise a fuss or panic over nothing.

Once in the air, everyone sat back with some sort of work. Tim was the only one having problems with it, since he didn't have his computer, which was where most of his work was.

When they landed, they were met outside of baggage claim by a perky blonde.

The death glares that had subsided during the two hour wait to board their plane, were back in full force within five sentences from her.

This was going to be a long two weeks.

* * *

The next day, Tony dragged his team out into the city to explore before the seminar started the next day. He ended up having to glare Gibbs into coming along instead of hiding out in his hotel room with his wood-carving.

"If they didn't want to give us time to get out of it, then why not get us plane tickets for today? Why yesterday, this is giving us an extra day to figure something out." Kate commented.

Tony shrugged while Tim spoke up. "I checked the flight schedules last night. The flight we took was the latest they could get for us on the short-notice." He answered.

"And don't complain about it, when's the last time you had a real vacation? Today we play, tomorrow is back to work, sort of, for us." Tony said airily, although he threw in a small glare at Gibbs for good measure. Gibbs sighed, but didn't grumble too much.

He knew that he was a... _bit _of a reckless driver. He knew it, but he usually didn't have a problem. Not with Metro, not with LEO's. And as reckless as his driving may seem to others, he'd never gotten in an accident or caused one. He'd gotten emails and calls from HR in the past about his driving, (which he didn't get, because they'd never had to chase a suspect or been on the clock because if they didn't get there _right now _somebody was going to die, so what gave them the right to dictate how he could drive?), but they'd never forced him back to driving school before. And why they were punishing his team, was beyond him.

For that matter, why the Director was going along with it, was also way beyond him! When they got back, he was going to have a long talk with the Director, and he was going to find out who nagged him enough that he finally had enough and caved, just to make them go away.

For now, though, they were going to enjoy some downtime. It wasn't often the team got to meet up and just hang out, no work attached. Of course, they saw so much of each other at work, that they generally tended to scatter and stick to doing their own thing after work anyway, but they still had relationships outside of work. Just last week, Tony helped Kate move her new kitchen/dining set into her apartment. The week before, he helped Tim pick out a new refrigerator after his old one quit on him. And then helped him move the old one out before installing the new one. Tim volunteered to help Abby with her Habitat for Humanity buildings all the time.

So, they _did _do stuff as friends outside of work, they just didn't often meet up as a team. And it was even more rare that Gibbs was with them when they did meet up.

Looking around, Gibbs was intrigued to see a sign for a wood-working museum, and pointed it out. Tony gave him a stare, but agreed that they could check it out, and the others didn't really care either way, so they figured out where it was and decided it was within walking distance, so they didn't bother calling for a cab or anything. It wasn't like they could rent a car for while they were here, after all. Rental companies required a valid drivers license before they would hire out their cars to people.

The museum was interesting. Gibbs certainly came out of there with new ideas for a project. Most people didn't know it, but he _did _have an actual workshop in his backyard. It just wasn't big enough for a boat. His basement, on the other hand, was. And, he just happened to spend the most time on his boat. Speaking of... he had a project in his workshop that he really should finish if he was ever going to give it to DiNozzo. He'd started it months ago, and if he wanted it finished in time for the other mans birthday, he was going to have to get a move on.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out around town, and finding somewhere nice to eat dinner.

* * *

The next day, when they stumbled into the hotel lobby, they were met with the same perky blonde that met them at the airport. "Good morning! Are we ready to learn safer driving habits?" She asked cheerfully, in that 'should be illegal this early in the morning' way that some people have.

Gibbs stared at her for a moment while his team moved around him towards the food, after a moment he grunted and made a beeline for the coffee machine, ignoring her completely.

(He'd been relieved when Tony informed him the night before that the center where the seminar was being held had been informed to keep a continuous stream of coffee on hand. Of course, this was a law enforcement seminar, so he was sure they already planned on that, but he was too busy being glad that apparently Tony wasn't _that _annoyed with him anymore that he was still looking out for him. Of course, Tony would probably say he was just looking out for everybody else around them who didn't know how to deal with a coffee deprived Gibbs.)

She blinked for a moment before recovering quickly. She was used to dealing with law enforcement personnel who didn't want to be at these types of things, but were being made to be here by HR under some kind of threat. "We have to leave in half an hour in order to be there on time, so I suggest eating quickly. You aren't the only group taking part in this, so we wouldn't want to keep everybody waiting! I've heard that the FBI agent in charge of your group this time around can be pretty impatient, and is a bit of a stickler, so you don't want to get on his bad side first thing. Especially since he has to sign off that you completed the course to his satisfaction." She warned, looking up from her paperwork to eye them.

Gibbs grumbled wordlessly, but a small smile quirked at his lips when Tony placed a stack of pancakes and waffles on the table in front of him, freshly made while Gibbs got his coffee and their hostess spoke, (what was her name again?). McGee followed a moment later with a couple of plates piled with eggs, sausage, and bacon, and Kate followed with breakfast pastries, yogurt, plates, and silverware for the group. Tony came back after a moment with an appropriated pitcher that he'd filled with juice, and cups. Gibbs smile grew as he watched his 'kids' sit down while he served himself and started off on passing plates around to his right, where Tony helped himself before passing it on to Kate.

"Sit, join us." He finally grunted after a moment, and crooked a finger at their hostess. It would be rude to just sit here eating in front of her.

She blinked at the team before she sat down at the empty chair. "I've already eaten, so I'm fine." She took a bagel anyway and picked at it while they ate and talked among themselves.

They didn't take long to finish, and once everything was cleaned up, they disappeared back to their rooms to gather their things for the day before gathering back in the lobby, where she led them out to the passenger van hired for their use. Unfortunately, due to not having valid drivers licenses at the moment, none of them could drive themselves anywhere, so they had to rely on walking when they weren't going somewhere seminar related. For that, they had to rely on her to drive them.

Arriving at the center, Gibbs froze in the doorway when he walked in, making Tony almost walk right into him. "Woah, boss! What... oh." Tony trailed off when he saw what it was that caused his boss to just stop like that.

"Gibbs! Imagine seeing you here." Tobias Fornell greeted, walking towards their group with a clipboard in hand and a smirk on his face.

"Tobias." Gibbs greeted warily.

Tony looked around carefully, but didn't see any of Fornell's team. And from what he remembered seeing, Fornell was actually a really good driver... so why was he here... oh no.

Fornell caught the look on Tony's face and had the nerve to laugh in Gibbs face. "That's right, DiNutso. I'm the instructor for this course." He grinned while Gibbs wary look vanished to be replaced by a glare and the rest of the team moaned and groaned about it.

He was so going to enjoy the next two weeks!

* * *

*I don't know, or care, if this actually exists or not.


	11. The One in Charge Now

AU of S3 E23-24 Hiatus

There is no slash, not even if you squint. This is all deep friendship, and years of working together in law enforcement.

* * *

Tony was in the basement when Gibbs finally made his way home.

When the now retired agent stopped beside his boat, he came out of the shadows and waited to be acknowledged. It took a moment before Gibbs finally turned around, but his Boss wouldn't look at him.

"So... this is it? You're just going to leave?" Tony asked, keeping his hurt in check. Without another word? All he was going to get after their years together was a 'you'll do'?

Gibbs grabbed a sander, but it seemed more automatic than anything, because he stood there for a moment, staring at it as if trying to figure out why he picked it up. "Not sure what else you want from me." _I barely even remember you._

After a moment, Tony sighed. "No, I don't suppose you even still remember much about me at all." He muttered. And, oh, how that hurt.

"I remember enough." Gibbs muttered back after a moment. Enough to know that he could trust the team to Tony's care.

Tony picked up the other sander and moved to the other side of the boat, here he started using it after a moment. "Ducky called after you left NCIS. He said you asked him to look into real estate agents in the area to sell the house."

"Yeah." Gibbs said simply.

"I guess I should clear out my room, then." Tony said quietly. Gibbs head shot up, and he stared at Tony intently. "You practically forced me to move in after that time a few years ago when I had the plague. Turned the guest room into my room... I only keep my apartment for storage or when I come back late from an assignment and don't want to disturb you."

Gibbs studied him for a moment. Then he moved upstairs so he could see the room in question. It certainly looked like somebody else lived there. A big T.V, a shelf full of DVD's, expensive suits in the closet that looked like it had been modified and expanded. When he went back downstairs, he looked around and saw an expensive looking coffee machine in the kitchen that he knew he never would have bought. Then he went straight for the safe where he kept all his important documents, and stopped when he saw that it wasn't the same safe he remembered.

Tony came up behind him slowly and quietly reminded him of the new combination for it.

"You're not on the deed." He said quietly, looking over the papers in question.

"No... you mentioned it a couple of times, but..." Tony shrugged.

Gibbs sighed and grabbed a pen, handing it and the documents to Tony. "I need... I can't be here right now. Too much... I don't remember enough, but I also remember too much."

Tony studied him, before looking down at the papers Gibbs handed him. "So... go figure your head out. Figure out where you need to go." Tony said quietly, before signing the documents where Gibbs pointed at. Then he handed Gibbs a phone. "Your old phone was destroyed in the explosion. I reprogrammed your speed-dial list as best as I could. I never did know who all the numbers were for. I'm speed-dial four, in case you didn't... you know."

Gibbs took the phone quietly. "Might as well give your apartment up. I won't be back for a while at least. The house is at least partly yours now."

"Call me, every so often." Tony didn't say anything about the house.

"Yeah."

"I'll keep your truck in running order... don't want the engine to seize up or anything while your gone... you want me to call your dad for you?" He asked after a moment.

"Can if you want." If Gibbs sounded a little icy there, neither of them said anything. Tony had never met Jackson Gibbs, but he knew enough to know that the two Gibbs men had _not _parted on good terms last they saw each other. Tony just nodded.

"My plane leaves in the morning." Gibbs finally muttered, having had Ducky stop him somewhere where he could get a plane ticket on their way back to his house. He knew that Tony was just trying to fill the silence right now, and he could suddenly remember the two of them sitting in front of the fireplace, eating steaks, talking. About everything and nothing at the same time.

"I'll drive you to the airport." Gibbs nodded and went upstairs to pack a bag and get some sleep. To be honest, he probably shouldn't have left the hospital yet, and he was tired right now. The whole day had been exhausting.

* * *

At the airport the next morning, Tony turned to Gibbs with a sigh. "I'll have the Director file for six months of paid medical leave for now. You can come back at any time during that period if you find that retirement doesn't suit you, and if you decide that retirement does suit you, well... you've put in your years. You'll be able to collect full benefits at least."

"Don't forget to tell Ducky to forget about real-estate agents." Gibbs said, not wanting to go into all that.

"Yeah... don't want the house being sold from under us." Tony tried to joke, but it fell flat.

"I'll call." Gibbs said, and clapped a hand to Tony's shoulder.

"Yeah. You take care." Tony briefly grabbed the hand on his shoulder, then dropped it when Gibbs turned to go through security. He stayed until he saw on the flight board that Gibbs plane had taken off, then he slowly left to go into work, knowing that the others would not be happy about this. Strangely enough, though, he didn't care what they thought.

Gibbs left him in charge. Even with his memory so full of holes that he couldn't tell him and Tim apart, he'd remembered enough to know he could be trusted with the team.

If they didn't like it... tough.


	12. Don't Mess with Us

He didn't quite know how they got on this topic during the bi-weekly SFA debrief/gossip meeting. Well, that's a lie... he knew exactly how they got onto this topic.

One of Miller's junior agents (Balboa's team) was accused of armed burglary and second degree murder. When the FBI came to arrest him, without presenting any solid evidence besides 'he's the only one in the area we could identify and he can't provide a suitable alibi', Balboa tried to fight it, to protect his agent, knowing full well that he didn't do anything that he was accused of.

And how did Jenny Shepard respond as the Director of NCIS?

"I've promised the FBI our full cooperation, and you will stay out of their way as they run their investigation."

It was a line all the investigative teams heard far too often when something happened and one of her agents was wrongly accused by an FBI who couldn't seem to figure out how to run a proper investigation.

Miller sighed. "Thanks again, for your help, Tony. I don't think we ever would have seen Alex again if it weren't for you guys helping us out and investigating properly." Tony just nodded, and went to say something, but was cut off.

"His team wouldn't have had to intervene on his behalf if the Director actually cared about us." Sanders snorted, disgusted.

"Ain't that the truth." Tony sighed, downing the coffee in front of him. "Me, McGee, Ziva... the only one of _my _team she hasn't thrown to the wolves is the Boss, and she and him had some sort of thing going when they worked in Europe together." He didn't know details, and he honestly didn't want to. All he knew was the betrayal he saw in Gibbs eyes at times when he looked at her, and the way she tended to play on his emotions and their past history together.

"That's only because none of the other agencies would dare mess with Gibbs." Was the general consensus around the room. Everyone chuckled quietly for a moment at the mere thought of somebody trying to

"Besides, she messes around with him in much worse ways then throwing him under the bus." They were all skilled and experienced investigators, they'd all done their time undercover over the years, or been in the military, they knew how to read people. They all saw the way she played with him sometimes, and they saw how Gibbs knew it, too. He still let her get away with it at times, though, when nobody else was going to be involved or when the agency wouldn't take a hit.

"My junior agents are terrified of her." Sanders admitted. "They find the line and stay ten feet away from it in the hopes that they're not the next ones to be falsely accused and thrown to the wolves."

"Nobody on my team will trust her to watch our backs." Another SFA said, shaking his head. And trust was everything in a law enforcement setting. Especially once you start going up the chain of command.

"The way she treats the agents under her, you would never know she was trained by Gibbs." Simpson commented, and they all had to agree.

"Gibbs leaves no man behind. If somebody he cares about is accused of something, he will find out the truth of the matter, especially if he knows them to be innocent." Tony murmured.

"Gibbs wouldn't use others in their personal vendetta's, either. He would just go after whoever was stupid enough to get on his radar himself." Miller snorted suddenly.

As the Senior Field Agents, they were responsible for making sure their teams training was up-to-date, that their team leads lives were kept as paperwork free as possible, that they provided a needed buffer between their team leads and general office politics, that discipline on the team was handled appropriately (often without the team lead even knowing about it), they liaised with the other teams, and that they knew everything that was going on within the agency that their team leads might someday need to know about. It was often joked about within the Navy Yard HQ that the SFA's were the most well-informed agents in the whole agency. They knew things that went on that the Director probably didn't even know about.

As such, they all knew almost the moment Tony was assigned to seducing Jeanne Benoit. They were the ones that made sure Tony didn't implode on himself while Gibbs was gone and he was essentially working four jobs, and that he didn't let the stress get to him of being a long term undercover, let alone an undercover with that kind of assignment.

None of them said anything, though. The SFA's were entrusted with highly classified intel on a regular basis, they knew how to keep their mouths shut. Instead they quietly made sure that McGee picked up on the SFA job quickly, and in general made sure Tony's life was as easy as possible, even if he technically wasn't one of them anymore. McGee never had really grown into the role as much as he liked to believe he had, it didn't help that he refused to let Tony really show him the ropes or tell him how things were as an SFA.

When the full truth of what was going on in the shadows during that op came out... needless to say NCIS almost had a rebellion on it's hands.

"Please don't say anything like that when Gibbs is in hearing range." Tony groaned. "I hate it when he goes lone-wolf on me... I always have to scramble to keep up and make sure he's covered." Both physically and with HR or the Director.

"Better you than me. I don't envy you working for him... he's a hard guy."

Tony grinned. "He has his moments." Gibbs didn't show that he cared often, but Tony knew he did. Which was why he went lone-wolf so often, to protect his agents from the fall-out of his actions. If they didn't know what was going on, they couldn't get in trouble. The problem with that theory, of course, was that Tony wasn't about to let him just go off.

"But, still, Tony. Are you ever going to do something about the way she treated you, with that whole vendetta?"

Tony sighed. "At this point, would there be any point to it?" He asked, and they all fell silent. They all knew Director Shepard was dying. Even if she was investigated, the most that would be done would be her dismissal. If she wasn't dying, then she might be charged with actual crimes, but... what would be the point to charge a woman who might not even live to make it to the end of the trial?

"It would ensure the next Director is placed under tighter scrutiny to avoid a situation like what Shepard has caused with her inactions over the years. It would ensure that the next Director knows that the people in this agency don't trust the Director's seat. It would make him less likely to repeat her mistakes." Miller pointed out. Although, they all liked Vance well enough anyway, they knew that he cared about and protected those under him to the best of his abilities.

"Besides, SecNav is just waiting on your word to do something officially, anyway." And, of course, as the SFA on the MCRT unit, Tony was unofficially the lead SFA. They followed his lead, he was their spokesperson when they as a group had concerns to be brought to the Director or higher, like the Secretary of the Navy.

Tony sighed. "I'll think about it, ok?" Because something did need to be done, especially if junior agents were terrified of getting on the bad side of the other agencies, afraid that they were going to be abandoned to their undeserved fates. Especially if she wasn't trusted as a whole.

* * *

When Gibbs arrived for work, Tony pulled him aside, in full view of the rest of the SFA's, and explained the situation with Jenny, and made sure his boss knew that the SecNav had already been called.

Gibbs cursed quietly. "I knew things were bad, but I didn't know they were this bad." He said quietly. "You guys do what you need to do." He gave them all his blessing, not that they were really looking for it.

Tony nodded and walked up the stairs with the rest of the SFA's behind him.

She was going to regret playing with the lives and careers of those she was supposed to be protecting.


	13. Lies

Tag to S4 E4

* * *

Gibbs listened stoically, but mentally he was laughing.

Ziva thought she could read Tony like a book. She didn't know that he practically breathed lies.

Gibbs knew that Tony was telling the truth about the date with the beautiful woman, and Tony lied on purpose about the car... a red corvette happened to have been the car he drove while undercover in Philadelphia. That, and when he would have been old enough to get his own car, he was a disowned kid in military school, he only went to college because he got a full ride scholarship for sports. Otherwise, he was planning on going straight into the military.

He'd seen pictures of Tony's first car, it belonged in a trash heap.

Tony must have missed the egg on his shirt, too, and Ziva clearly missed the fact that the shirt was the same one Tony wore the day before.

That was how _he _knew that Tony had a hot date the night before. He also knew that something was going on between Tony and the Director, but he didn't know what, and he knew it wasn't good.

* * *

Later, when he questioned Tony on just how close he and Jenny had gotten while he was gone, he had to walk away before doing or saying something he would regret when Tony so blatantly lied. The only saving grace Tony had right now was that he didn't even try to hide it. If he'd tried to hide it...

Walking into MTAC later on and seeing the op happening on the big screen that he was told 'you don't need to know', he knew that Tony was involved in something right now, and it was probably off the books. He could only hope that Tony had adequate back-up, or that he told him what was going on soon. Or at least before it was too late and something happened to him.

* * *

"It was Franks who hit me." Tony said, sitting on the steps in the basement.

"Yeah..." Gibbs said with a sigh.

"He hit his protective agent from behind, and left protective custody so he could set himself up as bait with a bogus tape. If you hadn't gotten there in time..."

"He didn't just hit his protective agent. Tony. He hit _you_." Gibbs corrected. He didn't say anything to Franks at the time, and now he was kicking himself for it, but he also knew that Tony would have found an apology gift as soon as he went back to his apartment, whenever that would end up being considering the 'relationship' he was in at the moment, although with everything going on between Tony and Jenny, and the fact that Tony wasn't talking about his girlfriend.

"Yeah... and then he went back to Mexico after shooting a guy in cold blood and hitting a federal agent over the back of the head as if nothing ever happened." Tony said wryly.

"Not as if nothing ever happened. As for hitting you, there will be an apology present in your apartment when you go back." At least, there better be. But if he knew Franks, and he liked to think he did, then there would be.

Tony looked up, but didn't say anything else.

Gibbs glanced over at him and sighed, putting down the tool in his hands and filling a jar with bourbon along with his coffee cup, and handing Tony the jar. "Tony, I did not say anything, not because I didn't care. I honestly don't know why I didn't say anything." Gibbs said quietly. "And... I know you turned down a promotion to Rota." He didn't look at Tony.

Tony's head shot up and he stared at Gibbs for a moment before huffing. "I told her to keep it between us." He muttered.

"You didn't take it?" He would have thought Tony would take it, Gibbs had come back pretty abruptly, after all, and Tony had been having a bit of a hard time adjusting back to not being in charge anymore.

"My place is here." Tony murmured, and Gibbs studied his face, looking for any sign that Tony was lying, but either Tony was really trying to hide it tonight, or he was honestly telling the truth.

"Alright. You did a good job today, Tony." He went back to his boat. "And you'll be careful with whatever Jenny has you doing?" He asked casually.

Tony huffed again. "Never could hide anything from you, could I? I'm being careful." He promised.

"You have good back-up in place? A good contact if things go south?" He pushed.

Tony was silent for a moment. "The Director is the only one who knows about my involvement in this whole thing." He finally said quietly, and Gibbs froze. "If things go bad, you'll be the first one I call, no matter what the Director says about it, but right now I can't tell you anything." His eyes and voice were pleading for Gibbs to drop it.

"I want you to signal me every time you leave the building to work this op. Every time you go to meet with your 'girlfriend', I want you to call me first. You don't need to give me details just yet, but I want to know when you're working it." He ordered.

"Yes, boss." Tony acknowledged.

"And Tony... make sure you run Ziva through some extra courses on reading body language." He commented wryly, and Tony laughed with a grin on his face.


	14. Aftermath

Tag to S5 E1 'Bury Your Dead'

* * *

All Gibbs could do was pace. He had no idea where Tony was, or if he was alright, all he knew was that Tony's cover was probably blown by one of the most notorious arms dealers in the world. The only consolation he had was that both Ducky and Kort said that ordering hits and such wasn't his style.

He knew something was wrong when he overheard that phone call about them getting an apartment together, Tony and Wendy dated for over a year before they moved in together or got engaged after all... and then after Wendy he all but swore never again, but he never imagined something like this... His ears pricked up when he heard McGee's comment behind him.

"Tony, teaching? No wonder he was compromised." Tim snorted.

"He taught you, didn't he?" Gibbs snarled quietly, looming over them both in a second, before Ziva could make whatever smart remark she was about to make.

"Ah... yes, boss." McGee said quietly before turning back to his computer.

Satisfied, Gibbs sat down, still fuming while they found Tony's car on the camera's.

Seeing it explode, the only thought he had was, 'not again.'

* * *

He could see it on their faces. They were all trying not to look at the charred body sitting behind the wheel of what used to be Tony's car. They couldn't see any way that it wasn't Tony sitting there. Ducky's comments about it being instant were not at all helpful.

Not. At. All.

"She blames herself." Ducky said in realization. "Should she?" He asked.

Gibbs couldn't answer him. He wanted to say yes. Everything in him wanted to say yes, because if he could pin it all on her, then he wouldn't feel as guilty about this. He wouldn't feel as guilty about not noticing more. He wouldn't feel as guilty about not paying Tony as much attention as he should have been lately.

* * *

Hearing Ducky rush into his squad area announcing that the body on his table didn't have plaque scarred lungs was the best thing he'd ever heard.

The breath of relief rushing through the room was almost visible, and he had to lock his knees to stay upright. His first priority was finding Tony. And when Kort walked into the room, he had to refrain from punching the man's smug face in.

When he saw Tony again, all he could do was project his anger for himself onto Tony and the fact that Tony didn't tell him anything about any of this. And, of course, he was more angry that he didn't see any of this.


	15. Please Not Again

Tag to S5 E7 Requiem

* * *

Gibbs was still too disoriented from almost drowning to protest when the paramedics put him on a gurney and started wheeling him towards the ambulance. Dimly, he could hear them talking to Maddie, trying to keep her awake and aware.

He was struggling to stay awake when he heard Tony talking to McGee and Ziva. Tony sounded like he was breathing hard. Then it hit him, Tony had been in the water, and it wasn't exactly warm out right now. He'd had to have run over, dive in the water, swam down to get her, put her down on the dock, come back for him, and then performed CPR on them both.

Suddenly he was wide awake and ripping off the oxygen mask the paramedics put over his face.

"DiNozzo!" He yelled as loud as he could before coughing. "Hospital, go." He ordered.

His lungs...

"Aw, Boss." He heard Tony complain, and then he saw Ziva grab him by the arm and bring him over to the ambulance where Gibbs was fighting the medics.

"Dr. Pitt... Bethesda. Call him for Tony." He informed the medics, fighting them off as they tried to put the mask back on.

"Alright. Alright, Dr. Pitt from Bethesda will be called while we drive. But we need you to calm down and put this back on."

"Oxygen, Tony." He said, allowing them to put the mask back on.

"Boss, I'm fine. You're the one that almost drowned." Tony protested.

"Tony, your lungs are compromised, remember? The smallest cold could kill you?" Tim asked him rhetorically. "And you just went for a swim in cold water." The medics stopped to look at Tony in alarm, the next thing he knew, he was being sat down in the ambulance, another blanket was wrapped around his shoulders, and a mask was being shoved in his face, to his very loud protests.

A hand hit the side of the ambulance, making everybody stop and look around. Gibbs was silently glaring at Tony, who sat back with wide eyes and didn't say another word while the medics finished setting up the oxygen tank he was now attached to.

"We'll finish things up here, Boss. And then come over to the Hospital, or meet you back at the office if you get released before that." Tim assured Gibbs, and stepped back as the paramedics went to shut the door. Gibbs just nodded, and then they were gone.

When the ambulances were gone, Ziva sighed. "If Tony had not been here..." She said quietly.

"Yeah. I'm sure the boss would have figured something out... but yeah." Tim agreed.

"Did you not hear Tony? Gibbs was trapped under the steering wheel and could not get out." Ziva reminded him.

"Come on. We need to finish processing the warehouse, and we need to make sure all the money is there." Tim finally said after a moment.

* * *

Four hours later, both Gibbs and Maddie were released with a warning to take it easy for a couple of days, and let their lungs recover from the strain of all that water being in them. After seeing Maddie off safely with an agent, who would take her back to the Yard and get her statement before making sure she was safely with a friend for a few days, Gibbs went hunting for his SFA and friend.

"Hey." He greeted, knocking on the door.

"Ah, Agent Gibbs, good to see you again." Brad Pitt said with a small grin on his face when he turned around. "Thanks for having them call me, the ER doctor that was looking at him was about to give him some meds that would really mess up his lungs before I got here... without even running any tests! Honestly, when a specific person has been called in because that person is familiar with the patients rather unique medical history, you _wait _for them to get there." He grumbled and turned back to the patient in question.

"He ok?" Gibbs asked after quirking a small grin.

"So far I don't see anything to cause me any concern. No wheezing or rattling, and he's finally stopped coughing, although I recommend he use his inhaler as prescribed for the next few days just as a precaution to keep those airways nice and open. There was a small amount of water in the lungs, but I don't think there's any danger of pneumonia setting in, as long as you stay warm and dry for the next few days and take your meds." Brad warned, and Tony grimaced at the thought of actually using his inhaler. He usually only used it on the few rare occasions where he couldn't breathe because of an attack, which was luckily quite rare for him.

"He'll stay with me for a few days." Gibbs promised Brad when he looked over questioningly. Apparently that was the right answer, because Brad looked satisfied enough.

"I don't need to be babysat." Tony immediately protested.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs warned with a glare. Tony stared back in defiance, but backed off quickly enough, grumbling the whole time.

Brad had to hide his smile at the familiar by-play between the two of them.

"We'll go into the office to drop off our reports, but I think Jenny will let us have the rest of the week off." Gibbs said with a sigh.

Tony actually smiled in relief. He could use a few days off. "Boss?" He finally said warily. Gibbs grunted in question. "Can you please stop going off on your own? Nothing good ever comes of it." He pleaded. "This was too close this time."

Gibbs looked at him guiltily. "I can try." He said simply. They both knew that this wouldn't be the last time he went off on his own, but he could certainly try to communicate with his team more. "But I know you'll be right behind me."

Tony glared petulantly. "I can't stay mad when you say stuff like that." He huffed. Gibbs quirked a smile.

Brad didn't hide his amusement this time. "I will go send in a nurse or something with discharge paperwork, along with a doctor who actually works at this hospital to confirm my results to sign off on the discharge." He smirked.

"Thank you, Dr. Pitt." Gibbs said as he left. Brad just waved a hand at him dismissively.

Tony sighed. "Can we work on the boat tonight?" He asked plaintively. He missed working on it, it had been a while.

"I don't know if that will be a good idea..." Gibbs said slowly. And he really didn't. Tony's lungs were already compromised today with the little bit of water he inhaled. Adding sawdust to that probably wouldn't help matters.

"Isn't that what you got that dust filter... thing for?" Tony asked. Gibbs had gotten a dust vacuum for his basement not long after Tony got the plague, so that Tony could be down there with him and not have to worry about too much dust settling into his scarred lungs and causing problems.

Gibbs snorted. "I did, didn't I?" To be honest, he hadn't remembered that until just now. But then again, he didn't think Tony had been in his basement since he got back from Mexico.

"Alright, I hear that you are getting out of here." A doctor said, coming into the room closely followed by Brad, who stood back and watched the E.R doc make his ruling that, yes, Tony could leave. "Just sign these forms and leave them at the desk on your way out." He said with a smile, and left.

"Well, I should get back to Bethesda, I still have a few hours on my shift, and a consultation scheduled for right after." Brad said, checking his watch. "You, take it easy for a few days, I don't want to see you in _my _hospital until your next appointment." He warned Tony, who merely grinned.

"Steak, tonight?" Tony asked hopefully while they walked out of the hospital, only to be met with another agent, sent by Jenny to get them back to NCIS, where they left their personal cars. Tony vaguely wondered who had drawn the short straw and had to round up the agency cars used by the two of them that day. He didn't even know where Gibbs had left his before going to that dock.

"Sure, why not?" Gibbs asked after a moment. Tony merely grinned.


	16. Dogs

Taking a break from Tony. Tag to S5 E13 Dog Tags

Was anybody else more than a little bothered by the way Abby turned on McGee as soon as she found out the dog got shot in self-defense?

* * *

"Abby." She turned around to find both Tony and Gibbs behind her.

"Hey, guys. Is there a case right now? I thought we closed the last one." She said brightly, a little confused about why they were down. They didn't even have Caf-pow with them!

"I just had an interesting conversation with another agent about something he saw down in the evidence garage today." Gibbs said simply. Not to mention the comments he'd heard after they found that other dogs bones.

"About what?" She asked.

"About the way you treated McGee over the dog. And now we find out that you're making him keep it? The dog that attacked him and almost tore his arm off?" Tony asked. Yes, he'd been teasing McGee about it all day, but he wasn't making his probie take the animal home with him!

"What are you talking about? He shot that poor innocent dog! And the military is just going to put him down, he didn't do anything!" She protested.

"That dog is the property of the United States Military, what they do with him is their business. And he is a trained working dog. If he turns on his handlers, or bites them, then chances are increased that he will do it again." Gibbs cut in sternly.

"He wouldn't..."

"Are you trained in the proper and safe handling of military service dogs, Abby?" Gibbs cut her off.

"Well, no, but..."

"Then how do you know what he will or will not do in the future?" Tony asked quietly.

"If the military decides to put him down after this, then that is because they feel he is a danger to others. A service dog that attacks without command is a loose cannon, the military does not like loose cannons." Gibbs intoned.

"He didn't attack anyone!" She cried.

"Then what are the bite marks all over McGee's neck and arm?" Tony demanded.

"He'd gotten into a bag of cocaine! He was high and not in his right mind!" She challenged. "And McGee didn't have to shoot him!" She tried a different tact, knowing that she was in the right here.

"Would you rather McGee be Ducky's current guest in autopsy right now? Which would you rather, Abby? A flesh wound on a dog, or a dead McGee?" Tony challenged her. Truth be told, he and Gibbs were equally as guilty as the dog, they shouldn't have sent him around back alone. They didn't need three people on the front of the house, Ziva or Tony should have been in back with him.

If they'd done that, the dog would never have gotten as far as it did when mauling his arm, although the dog would also be dead right now.

Abby was speechless, when she finally got her voice back, she was outraged. "How dare you even think of asking me something like that?" She yelled, and moved to punch Tony on the arm, which he smoothly dodged, not in the mood for letting it hit.

"Then why did you completely forget all about McGee's injuries and instead start berating him for defending himself?" Gibbs barked.

She was quiet for a bit. And Gibbs sighed. "Go talk to the nuns. I expect a sincere apology to McGee once you get your head on straight. I've already called Pax River. They've agreed to put him through retraining with a new handler, owing to the circumstances of when he attacked McGee, but one more incident, and they will have to put him down." He said.

"But, Gibbs, you said..." She started.

"That was before you tried to force him onto McGee. Either find something else for him, or he goes back to Pax River." Tony said simply, and turned to walk out.

Abby was stunned. "Gibbs..." She implored, turning to him, only to find disappointment in his eyes.

"I thought you cared about him, Abby." He said, and followed Tony, leaving her to stand in the middle of the lab, stunned.


	17. Good Idea After All

Cross-over chapter with Criminal Minds.

Because why not?

* * *

Gibbs growled as he slammed down his desk phone, causing Tony to jump and turn around cautiously. He had been at the plasma, studying the crime scene pictures to try and figure out what it was that was bugging him. There was something about the scene that just seemed... off to him, and it had been bugging him all day.

"Boss?" He asked warily. Anything that could make him that angry over a phone call usually meant somebody was incompetent, they had another body, or he'd just been ordered to play nice with somebody he didn't want to play nice with. If that was the case, though, Fornell usually showed up to explain, he seemed to be the appointed 'liaison' between Gibbs team and the other agencies, after all.

"Our investigation crosses paths with the FBI's BAU." Gibbs said shortly.

Tony winced and barely held back his groan. There were three things Gibbs _hated _dealing with.

Lawyers.

Spooks.

And Shrinks.

Not necessarily in that order.

Tony was going to be running a lot of interference between Gibbs and the team of shrinks. It wouldn't matter that they carried guns just like they did, if they could get into a person's head, then they were shrinks.

"Are they coming, or we going?" He asked, resigned to a long investigation.

"We're coming." He heard from behind him, and he closed his eyes with a growl.

"Please, don't do that." He demanded when he turned around. "It's bad enough the Boss does it." He leaned against Gibbs desk as said Boss stood to step around it and introduce himself to the intruders in his territory.

(All the BAU looked amused by Tony's reaction, but they also took the warning for what it was, especially since they'd all seen his hand twitch towards his empty weapon holster when Hotch spoke.)

"My apologies... I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, this is Dr. Spencer Ried, SSA Jason Gideon, Agents Jereau, Prentiss, and Morgan." He introduced his teams, every agent waved when their name was called.

Gibbs studied them for a moment. "I'm Gibbs, this is my Senior Field Agent, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. He's in charge when I'm not around. Agent McGee and Officer David are out chasing leads right now." The profilers could clearly hear the pride in his voice when he introduced DiNozzo to them, especially by the way he listed the SFA's full 'rank'.

"Hey, DiNozzo, you got a sec?" Another agent poked his head around the corner of some desks to ask. Tony waited for Gibbs minute nod before plastering a smile on his face and going towards the other agent with a cheerful 'sure, what ya need?'

Gibbs didn't like the way Hotchner and Gideon looked at each other over the small interaction. "The case?" He asked. He was known for not playing well with others, they would get over it.

"Over the last two weeks, there have been a string of murders in the D.C area, Virginia, and Maryland, all matching the MO of your Marine yesterday. We were called in last week when the connections were made, and a Metro officer called us this morning about a connection to your case." Hotch said simply. He glanced at the plasma screen, where Tony had left the crime scene photos up. "Is this...?" Gibbs nodded, and the BAU team immediately started discussing them in relation to the rest of their case.

"Boss!" They all looked up to see Tony on the mezzanine. "You might want to come see this. Bring the green folder in my desk, please?" He looked grim, and Gibbs was up and on his way to the stairs with the requested folder in his hands before anybody could blink.

"Those two work well together." Gideon absently commented. Hotch hummed. "But DiNozzo..." The boy had layers of masks hiding who he really was. They had all seen it.

"We'll have to observe some more." Hotch said with a shrug.

"I wonder what it was that was so urgent." Morgan wondered while watching the NCIS agents disappear into MTAC.

The two didn't come back for nearly an hour, and when they did, both men were clearly in dark moods. "Take one of them with you." He waved a hand at the BAU team that had made themselves at home in the bullpen while they were gone. Chairs had been found and pulled up beside desks, leaving the original chairs alone for the agents who actually worked here to have somewhere to sit while they worked. Hotch caught Morgan and Prentiss' eyes and nodded for them to go.

By then, Tony had already grabbed his gun and bag, and was heading for the stairs, deeming the elevator to be too slow. Especially since he didn't know which floor it was even on right now.

The two BAU scrambled to follow.

As they passed the elevator, Tim and Ziva stepped off, laughing about something. The laughter stopped when they saw the look on Tony's face. "Tony?"

"Hey, Probie. Put out BOLO's, Boss has details. Ziva, you get with your Mossad contacts. Gibbs will fill you in." He instructed as he held the elevator door open after rushing to get on it since it had just become available. Instructions given, he allowed the door to close on the confused faces of his team.

"What's going on?" Derek asked while they waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor.

"Our dead Marine was involved in some pretty serious stuff, and possibly stole some classified intel to sell. We didn't recover any files or anything at his apartment yesterday, so we're going back to search it again, or see if we can't figure out who he might have been selling to. We'll have to hunt down and talk to his buddies, too." Tony said with a sigh after a moment.

"Huh. That's different." Derek muttered. He couldn't think of any past cases the BAU dealt with where the victim was committing treason.

"No, not really." Tony deadpanned. "Just a normal Monday as far as I'm concerned. If we don't get something like at least once a month, then I start to worry."

"Really?" Emily questioned, and Tony nodded.

"Seems like, anyway. Military guys have access to some stuff that some people would be really interested in learning about, and those guys usually have the heavy wallets to get what they want." He explained. And, oh did money open doors and mouths. It was really pathetic what people would sell for just a little bit of extra cash, they would even sell out their comrades.

"What kind of military secrets would he be selling? I didn't think he was high up, or in a position where he could really access anything." Emily asked, thinking through what she'd read of his file.

"Classified above your security clearance. And you'd be surprised what they could figure out about our military from our supply shipments." He was quiet for a minute before leading them out the elevator and to the car. "It's not really anything that could cripple National Security or anything, but it will cause a lot of problems for our boys overseas." He finally said. "As well as put a few NCIS undercover operations in jeopardy." Unsaid was the lives of the agents working undercover.

It had already blown the undercover operation Tony had been prepping for, the guy that came to get him earlier, was the MTAC operator who often was in charge of tracking Tony's movements when working. That was how they knew their Marine, or somebody close to him, was selling intel he shouldn't have access to.

"His death was probably unconnected with his side-deals then, either that or the last two weeks have been somebody cleaning house. But we haven't found anything in the vics' lives to suggest that they were involved in anything like that." Derek speculated. The others nodded.

"I hate traitors." Tony muttered. Dirty cops, traitors, they were one and the same.

Derek looked up sharply at that and studied Tony's face. "Partner?" He asked. The file they had on him said he was a detective before transferring to NCIS unexpectedly after two years at Baltimore.

"Yeah... but then, I was probably the only clean cop in Baltimore." He snorted. "Why is it so easy for people to betray their friends, family, and brothers in blue for a little extra cash?" He asked, bitterly.

"Good question." Derek said with a sigh. They saw too many police officers go rogue, or start killing people themselves. Too many police officers turn on each other, the ones they were supposed to be able to depend on the most.

The drive was silent, each lost in thoughts about the case.

"Well, here we are. Again." Tony was honestly a little annoyed over it, he hated missing things the first time a crime scene was gone over.

"Don't want to search the place again?" Emily asked, a little surprised.

"No, not really. Because that means we missed something the first time. I pride myself on being thorough, which means not missing things." Tony sighed before going inside.

"Well, you weren't searching the place earlier with wrong-doing on the vics part in mind. You were searching for evidence of the killer. This time, you have a new perspective to search with." Emily reasoned.

"Yeah... I suppose. Doesn't mean I gotta like it, though." Derek and Emily just exchanged looks while following the NCIS agent in.

* * *

"What do you think?" Gideon asked Hotch the next day when they were alone. Hotch didn't need to ask what Jason was asking. DiNozzo, Prentiss, and Morgan had come back the day before without any files, but they did have a list of names to run down that they hadn't had before, along with a detailed record of every scrap of information he'd ever sold, and to who. Turned out he was kind of paranoid that his customers would turn on him, so kept records as an insurance policy. It had been hidden very well, _Tony _had almost missed it.

They combined that list with the suspect pool the BAU already had, and all the names were currently being run through the system while Garcia looked up other search parameters based on the profile.

"I think they are a very good team. Agent DiNozzo hides a lot of himself, but Agent Gibbs seems to be able to bring him out, and is very protective of him. The two junior agents seem to take him at face value, though, and don't seem to hold much respect for him as a fellow agent, let alone their superior." Hotch said with a grimace. That made the whole team a ticking time-bomb waiting to go off any moment.

"DiNozzo is very good at easing the tension, too. He is very experienced with the horrors of being a law-enforcement officer."

"Well no wonder, you saw his file. Undercover in the Macaluso Family, youngest officer to get his gold shield, he's an expert at undercover... and several of his past partners have snapped under the pressure, or were found to be dirty." Hotch pointed out. "He's about seen it all." DiNozzo's records were rather impressive, actually.

"He jokes around to both hide, and to make sure his teammates don't let the job get to them."

"They sure don't appreciate his efforts." They shared a look and went to rejoin the two teams. Prentiss, Morgan, and Tony seemed to have hit it off fairly well, while Ziva and JJ seemed to be having an argument about something. Ried and McGee were having an intense discussion about... something. Gibbs was alternating between watching the teams interact and studying the file in his hands.

Suddenly, he shut the file and barked, "What we got?"

His team jumped up in a well-choreographed move. McGee grabbed the remote, shooting Tony a smug look when he got to it first (Tony just rolled his eyes), and clicked a button, bringing up images on the plasma. "The most probable buyers are these guys here. Abdul Samar, James Pritchard. They are the only ones in the country right now, and the most recently contacted. Oh, and this guy... his name wasn't listed in the notebook, and there's no picture of him on any database, but he's called the Chameleon."

None of the BAU missed how Gibbs and Tony jerked around and glanced at each other for the last one. After an intense silent discussion, involving many mini glares, small head shakes, shrugs, and eyebrow raises, Gibbs interrupted McGee's presentation (which he had continued, ignorant of the by-play between his two teammates). "Forget about the Chameleon. Focus on the other two."

"But... Boss, he's a potential threat to the United States military, and countless covert ops officers." McGee protested.

"No, he's not." Gibbs said shortly. "Move. On." He said slowly, glaring.

McGee gulped, but moved on, showing financials, phone calls, and emails. When he was done, Ziva jumped in with chatter from her overseas contacts, and then Tony jumped in with everything he dug up that supported McGee's findings and pointed to which of the two likely's was the most likely, along with the current location for both of them and a third party that McGee and Ziva both missed. Along with a possible suspect for the murders themselves, which everyone else seemed to have forgotten about in the excitement of needing to find stolen intel.

"Any of these guys fit your profiles? Or your suspect list?" Tony asked the BAU for their input, giving Gibbs a small glare to remind him that he was supposed to be playing nice with the other kids.

Garcia had been on the computer (the BAU team video conferenced her in as soon as they realized that Gibbs was demanding an update on his teams findings). "James Pritchard has been in frequent contact with two of the people on our suspect list." She informed those in the room, digging deeper into records that McGee never thought to look through. "There are no connections to Abdul Samar that I can find... and the third guy does have contact with somebody else on the list." She looked up, waiting for somebody to request additional information.

"Ok... we'll go pick up our guys. You want to handle bringing in the three bigger fish?" Hotch suggested.

"Three? But only two of them have been in contact with the guys who might have actually pulled the trigger." McGee protested, looking confused but pulling his gun out anyway.

"It's called being thorough, Probie." Tony said, exasperated and slightly condescending sounding. "We don't want to ignore him and go after the others, only for it to have been him all along."

"Besides, it's not like he's not wanted for anything else." Gibbs muttered under his breath.

"If we're being thorough, then why don't we dig deeper for the Chameleon?" Tim asked, still indignant that his hard work had been dismissed like that.

"Because we know that he's not a threat. And because I told you to drop it." Gibbs snarled, turning on him with a glare. Tony snorted, but didn't say anything.

As they were getting off the elevator, Hotch's phone rang. "Hotchner." He answered without even looking at the caller ID.

"Don't put me on speaker." Garcia's voice came through. "I know who the Chameleon is. It's Agent DiNozzo." She'd hacked a highly classified file to find out that much, and her servers would be wiped clean of it as soon as Hotch gave the word.

He hummed at the confirmation. "It's classified intel?" He asked.

"Very much so. If it didn't come up as part of a case, I wouldn't have touched it." She answered.

"Scrub the servers, and then go to Chief Strauss to let her know. She'll want to inform the NCIS Director and then probably have you sign something." He sighed. Garcia already knew so much classified information, he wasn't sure what the point was in having her sign anyway was, he's long since proven that she wouldn't talk about anything that she knew.

"Yes, sir." She hung up, and Hotch glanced over to find Gibbs watching him with a knowing look in his eyes.

"She stumbled across something, she won't say anything." Hotch assured.

Gideon spoke up from behind them. "She'll probably make sure the file she looked at is even more protected now than it was when she opened it." DiNozzo let out a small sigh of relief, but otherwise didn't react.

Not even Abby knew about that, only Gibbs and former-Director Morrow did.

* * *

"James Pritchard! NCIS, we have a warrant!" McGee announced themselves, waited a few seconds, and then got out of the way so his impatient Boss could kick the door open and go in, followed closely by Tony, who gave him a small smirk/smile.

They were going after him first, thinking that he would probably be the easiest 'catch', and sure enough, he wasn't in any way prepared to fight back. He was a business-man, not a killer. The fact that he was involved in some shady dealings actually kind of baffled McGee once they actually met the guy.

"Moving on." Gibbs said, scoffing as James Pritchard was driven away in an agency car to be delivered to an interrogation room while they got the other two on their list.

"That was... I was expecting a fight." Tony said blankly while they followed Gibbs back to their own car.

"Careful what you wish for, DiNozzo." Gibbs muttered under his breath later on while Tony sat in the E.R getting his arm looked at after being shot.

They'd left Abdul Samar for last, because all indications from his file said that he would be surrounded by at least two other men, and would certainly not come quietly. He didn't come quietly, all right. Tony got a bullet lodged in his arm, and would be on desk duty for a couple of weeks, while Tim had barely avoided being grazed by the same bullet. Ziva and Gibbs both had some bumps and bruises, but were otherwise unharmed.

"I'll go get your paperwork to get you out of here." Gibbs said with a sigh. They'd already assured him that Tony wouldn't need major surgery, it was all tissue and muscle damage. They just sewed everything back together again, took X-rays, and pumped him full of painkillers, which meant that things in the squad area would be very interesting for a while. And it looked like his guest room was going to be in use for a while.

"Ok, Boss! Hey, did you know that John Wayne..." He smirked and left, leaving the doctors to enjoy Tony's drugged rambling. He would enjoy some peace and quiet while he still could.

* * *

"Uh, is he alright?" Prentiss asked when the BAU team came back into the squad area after making sure their suspects were safely in holding.

"Yeah... they gave him painkillers at the hospital." McGee said simply, not even looking up from his computer. It was nothing new, this happened every time somebody at the hospital failed to read the little warning on Tony's medical records that they shouldn't give him certain kinds of medication.

"Yes... and it's on his Do Not Give list, too..." Ducky stated, coming around the corner and eyeing Tony.

"'Do Not Give' list?" Morgan asked the doctor, concerned.

"Yes... oh, it won't do him any harm, or cause any adverse physical reactions, no. But he's always reacted rather strongly to opiates like these. As you can tell." Everyone turned to eye Tony, who was currently rambling on and on about something. Nobody really knew what he was talking about, he seemed to be following a train of thought that only he knew existed, and was leaving out all the contextual clues they might have been able to use to work it out, and then he kept jumping between topics... "No, he's better off with a local numbing agent, and Advil. Anything much stronger, and I'm afraid he gets... well, interesting is one way to put it."

"Yeah, he's got to be under constant supervision while he's like this. Those drugs seem to give him selective amnesia of sorts... he tends to completely forget he's injured, and then tries to act completely normal, even when that could make his injury worse. Or he'll be acting worse than a happy-drunk." McGee explained further. "He's not exactly... all there. Gibbs is the only one who can drag him back to reality when he's like this." He side-eyed Tony for a moment, then went back to his work.

Gibbs finally wandered back in after making sure their dirtbags were all where they should be for interrogations. "DiNozzo." He gave Tony a light head slap to get his attention. "You think you can handle Pritchard's interrogation?" He asked, knowing full well that Tony without drugs in his system would get him talking in no time at all. A drugged up on painkillers Tony would get him talking in half that.

"Yeah, sure. You doing the other two first?" He asked, blinking rapidly, which was Gibbs sign that he was working to focus.

"Hm-hm." Gibbs nodded and walked back towards the interrogation rooms, DiNozzo bouncing along behind him. The BAU looked at each other in concern and followed, not sure about letting Tony in an interrogation room while drugged up on painkillers.

* * *

Two hours later, the BAU's main suspects were in holding while the 'big fish', as Hotch called them, were in interrogation rooms. Needless to say, the BAU were kind of impressed with Gibbs interrogation tactics. Tony's...

"Gibbs... what is he doing?" Emily asked, confused about why Tony was just sitting there, playing on his phone, making idle conversation with their prisoner.

McGee was right, though, Gibbs did seem able to keep his focus on something. In this case, the interrogation that Gibbs tasked him with carrying out.

Gibbs smirked. "It may not be pretty, but it's effective." He murmured in pride as Tony's seemingly idle chatter relaxed their prisoner enough that he accidentally revealed everything. "Bingo."

"Can we steal him from you?" Derek asked, shocked and impressed.

"Nope." Gibbs said simply and watched as Tony pounced on the slip-up. Suddenly, the phone disappeared and he was all business.

"So... you've been buying and selling United States military intel to terrorists overseas? You know... that sounds to me like a one-way ticket to Gitmo." Tony said calmly, noting something down on the notepad in front of him.

"What?" James Pritchard acted startled, but they could all see the sudden shifty look in his eyes and the sweat on his brow. "I never sold anything like that!"

"Yeah you did, you just said you did." Tony raised an eyebrow. "It's all on tape." He gestured towards the camera mounted in the corner of the room.

James glared at the offending camera as he paled.

"But you know, we might be able to speak to somebody, get you in minimum security at least, if you tell us everything you know." Tony leaned over his notepad, pen ready.

Thirty minutes later, he walked into observation to see stunned and impressed FBI agents while his boss stood there impassively except for the proud glint in his eyes. Without a word, the notepad was placed into his bosses waiting hand before he walked back out.

He was hungry.

"Where is he...?"

"Food." Gibbs grunted while scanning the notepad's contents with satisfaction. A moment later, he leaned out the doorway. "Take Palmer with you, DiNozzo!" He called. Tony couldn't be left on his own when he was on painkillers, after all.

"Lets go break our guys and hand this intel off to those who can use it." Morgan finally said after a moment. He was ready to close this case and go home. Unfortunately (or not) the military and treason side of this case was way out of their jurisdiction, so they could leave NCIS to deal with the fallout and majority of the paperwork.

"None of you are leaving until your share of the paperwork is done." Gibbs said absently while leading them back to the office area. He didn't once glance up from Tony's interrogation notes. He was going to make sure the BAU got more paperwork than the Director would probably be happy with, but if they were going to work a case with them, they were going to do their fair share of the work afterwards.

Derek groaned while Emily laughed. Derek always tried everything he could to get out of doing paperwork, even going so far as to foist it all off on Spencer. The two followed him back to the bullpen area, where they were surprised to find the ME and forensic scientist all standing around in the area.

"What's up?" Gibbs asked.

"You got the guys?" Abby asked, eager as always.

"Yup." Gibbs said. The BAU had a confession from the killer, and everything.

Turned out, the killing itself was simply the work of a serial killer, with no connection to the treason whatsoever.

"Where's Tony?" She asked. She'd heard that Tony was on painkillers right now, and he was always interesting when he was drugged up from the hospital.

"He's out with Mr. Palmer getting something to eat, I believe. The painkillers from the hospital should be wearing off soon enough." Ducky said, shaking his head and taking a bottle of pills out of his pocket. "These, Jethro, are his new prescription." He handed them to Gibbs. "They won't cause any adverse reactions like the other kind." He huffed.

"Good." Gibbs said. As much as he cared for Tony, not even he could stand drugged-up Tony for long without wanting to shoot the man. "They still going to be strong enough?" He didn't want Tony in unnecessary pain because he had adverse reactions to the stronger stuff. That, and it would be hard to sleep if his arm was hurting.

"Yes... there might be some discomfort, but it won't be anything he can't handle." Ducky assured. Gibbs nodded and started getting paperwork around for the BAU to fill out, pointing them to various unused desks and computers throughout the room to use.

* * *

"Why don't we all go out for dinner tonight?" Emily suggested later on. Tony had returned with lunch for both teams roughly an hour before. "Both our teams."

"Oh, there is a new restaurant here in D.C I was actually wanting to try out." JJ immediately agreed.

Gibbs put down the pen he was holding and looked at the girls incredulously. He could see that the men on the BAU team weren't too thrilled with the idea (they'd been more thrilled before Agent Prentiss made it a combined-team dinner), but they were readily agreeing, anyway. He could have sworn that his reputation and general attitude would have been enough to scare them back to their own building as soon as the case was over. Now they wanted to go out for _dinner _with him and his team?!

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Tony said, raising an eyebrow at Gibbs. The painkillers had, indeed, worn off shortly after he and Palmer returned with food. Gibbs just stared at Tony in betrayal, especially when he saw the amusement in his agents eyes.

Seeing that Tony was agreeing, and knowing that he would somehow be able to talk Gibbs into agreeing to go as well, McGee and Ziva reluctantly agreed, too. "Want me to call Abby and Ducky, Boss?" McGee asked, reaching for the phone. After a brief stare down with Tony, Gibbs slowly nodded. A few moments later, all three scientists agreed.

"Want me to call Garcia?" Derek asked Hotch, who agreed.

"Nobody goes anywhere until all paperwork and reports are on my desk." Gibbs demanded, knowing full well that his two junior agents would try to put everything off long enough that Tony got annoyed and just did it himself just to get Gibbs to stop asking where his reports were. The last time he caught them doing that, well... lets just say the truck had never been cleaner. It even got a good ol' wash on the outside for once. When the BAU looked at Hotch for his input, he nodded for them to get to work. Clearly he was in agreement with Gibbs that all the work get done before they left (then again, he was well aware of Derek's paperwork tendencies).

"He's demanding." Emily muttered.

"He also has ears like a bat." Tony hissed in her ear as he passed on his way to the printer. She looked up at Gibbs slowly to find him eyeing her like a predator would his prey. She smiled hesitantly and went back to her work, after a minute she could feel his stare leave her.

Tony was the first one to drop reports on Gibbs desk, before he went back to his own and started working on something else. "Add a few more cases to that req. order, DiNozzo, we seem to be going through it more than usual." Gibbs said without looking up.

"Already did, Boss. I also booked us for the range next weekend and took us off normal rotation, we have our fire-arms requal. coming up, figured you'd want us to get some practice time in. The guys at the armory have also emailed wanting us to bring down our bullet vests down for maintenance checks." Tony said, looking over at him. "Also... got another email from HR." He got up and went back to stand in front of Gibbs desk.

Now Gibbs looked up, wary. "What for?" He asked slowly.

"Same thing the last ten emails were for." Tony said, not wanting to air the Bosses business in a room full of gossiping schoolgirls, er- fellow agents, and the FBI. "You ever going to get around to it?" Tony asked.

"Yeah... Yeah, I'll get around to it. I'll take care of it before coming in tomorrow morning." He decided with a sigh.

"I will email them back and let them know." Tony promised, going back to his desk. A moment later, an IM chime sounded and Tony shot an annoyed look at McGee while pressing the delete button, not even bothering to grace that with a response. "Also... made reservations at that new restaurant for tonight. Open time, they are holding a table for whenever we get free." He glanced up and smirked.

"When do you do all this?" McGee asked, incredulous. Honestly, he messed around half the time, but somehow always seemed to have all the answers, and his work done before them!

"Work smarter, not harder, Probie." Tony smirked, and the BAU all glanced around at each other, eyebrows raised and impressed.

"How did you get an 'open time' reservation?" JJ asked. She was the teams liaison with media and police, which often left her as being the one to liaise with local civilians as well, and she could never have gotten something like that. Restaurant's didn't like having empty tables, an open time meant they didn't know when the party was coming, which meant they had to keep the table empty all night so that it was ready for them at all times.

"I know some people." Tony smirked.

"Probably slept with one of the waitresses." McGee muttered, slightly bitter.

"No, Probie. I did not." Tony glared lightly. "The owner happens to be my neighbor. She's seventy."

"She's pretty old to be opening new restaurants." Derek said, slightly impressed. Again, the BAU all exchanged significant glances over the exchange between Tony and one of his teammates.

"Well, it's a family business, and her grandkids mostly run things now, but..." Tony shrugged. "I take care of her cats every now and then when she's gone, and she always brings me cookies."

"If we're going to make our reservation, I suggest we get some work done." Gibbs said, staring around at the group. McGee and Ziva immediately turned back to their work, the BAU moved more slowly.

Twenty minutes later, McGee handed his reports off to Tony to check over and sign off on before handing it off to the lead agent. Ziva's reports followed five minutes later. After handing off their reports, they each turned back to some other work that they'd been doing before the case got called in.

"Ziva, I still need your weapons discharge paperwork." Tony said after glancing through the file she handed him.

She huffed, and glared, but one look at Gibbs stare was enough to have her printing out the right forms. "I still do not understand why we need to fill out a paper for every bullet fired. It is a waste of time." She exclaimed, just like she did every time they reminded her to fill it out.

"Those bullets are the property of the United States government. They like to know what happens to the things they spend money on, especially if those things have the capability of killing somebody or causing property damage, depending on the skill of the person shooting them." Tony said absently, holding out her report for her to take so she could add the paperwork to it. McGee's paperwork was looked over and signed off on without problem, and handed back to McGee so he could turn it into Gibbs.

"Ziver." Gibbs said. When she looked up, he continued. "You forget that form again, you're being written up and being sent back to FLETC for a refresher course on proper procedure and paperwork protocols." He was tired of hearing Tony constantly telling her to fill out that form.

She grumbled. "Yes, Gibbs." She couldn't believe she had just been scolded like that... and in front of the FBI!

Fortunately, the FBI didn't appear to be paying them much attention. They were currently busy handing in their reports to their unit leader, who skimmed through them to make sure everything was there (he didn't even bother to check the work itself!) before laying the appropriate forms on Gibbs desk and trusting Reid to hold onto the rest in his ever-present bag.

By this point, Ziva was the only one still doing paperwork, everyone else was doing some sort of busy work or chatting quietly among themselves.

"Garcia just arrived at the restaurant." Hotch informed the group after checking his cell phone, right when Abby, Ducky, and Jimmy came up to see where everybody else was, and to inform the group that they were ready when everyone else was.

"And... done!" Ziva said, finishing the report and handing it all off to Tony to sign. "You do not have to check every page!" She exclaimed when she turned back around after gathering her things to see that Tony was looking through it page by page.

"You have a tendency to... show off your multilingual skills when you're in a hurry or stressed about something. I'm just checking that it's all in English." Tony said, finally signing off. "Last I checked, the Boss doesn't speak all the same languages that you do." He said, handing it back to her to give to Gibbs. For instance, the Boss spoke Russian, last he knew, that wasn't one of Ziva's many languages.

As soon as Gibbs looked through the file, he locked all the reports away in his desk to be filed later, then looked around at his team while he slowly gathered his things. They were standing around his desk, belongings gathered, looking at him hopefully. "What?" He asked, fond exasperation in his voice. "Go." He waved towards the elevator. "DiNozzo, you're riding with me." He called before Tony got on the elevator with the rest of the NCIS team along with those of the BAU who managed to fit on it. The rest of the group would have to either take the stairs, or wait for the next elevator.

An hour later, he shook his head fondly. Tony was talking animatedly, waving his hands (well, hand, the other one was currently trapped in a sling) around in that way he had when he was excited about something and wasn't paying attention to what his body was doing. He hadn't seen his boy this excited by something in a long time... at least not while Tim and Ziva were around.

Maybe... maybe working with the BAU wasn't so bad, after all.


	18. The Probie

"Come on, Tony! I think we've been here long enough! When are you going to stop calling us 'Probie'? I haven't been a probationary agent in years!" McGee almost yelled, exasperated.

Tony stopped going through his filing cabinet and turned to him with a raised eyebrow. Gibbs stopped just out of sight from his team to listen in. Everybody else on the floor made no effort to hide or disguise the fact that they were listening in to the latest argument between the three agents of Gibbs team.

"Yeah? So? Doesn't matter how long you've been here, or how long you've been off probationary status. You'll always be my probie." He shrugged. "Pretty sure Franks still calls Gibbs that, anyway." He pointed out after a moment.

"Yeah, I don't hear Gibbs calling _you _that, wouldn't it be the same for you?" Tim challenged while Ziva came to stand next to him, silently supporting him in his efforts to get Tony to stop calling them that.

"Yup. Gibbs and me? We have an understanding." Tony grinned mischievously. "He doesn't call me 'Probie', and I... behave myself."

The two of them exchanged a confused look while everyone else nearby that overheard, and had been here for _that _confrontation, snickered or groaned in remembrance.

"But you don't behave yourself!" Tim exclaimed, put out. "You glued my keyboard yesterday!"

Tony snorted. "Probie, that's tame compared to what I used to get up to." He smirked at Balboa, who was groaning, obviously remembering something Tony had done.

"And jamming every drawer in my desk? I had to get building maintenance to fix it so I could do my work!" Ziva reminded. "And then when we got them open, everything I needed was gone!"

Tony gave her a strange look. "I had everything you needed in my desk, all you had to do was ask me about it." He shrugged. "I play pranks, I don't interfere in cases or your ability to do your job right."

"Gluing my keyboard isn't interfering with my ability to do my job?" McGee deadpanned.

"Nope! Because if you had ever bothered to look, you would have found a non-glued, perfectly working keyboard to switch it out with nearby. _And," _Tony held up a finger. "I never do that when we are in the middle of a hot case."

"How are those tame?"

Balboa finally couldn't help it, he burst out laughing, loudly. "David, be grateful you weren't here for Tony's first month on the job. It was... messy." He finally said once he got control of himself. Confetti all over the room, streamers and balloons that were so numerous and just kept popping up out of nowhere so often that nobody even _bothered _to take them down... agents covered in silly string, whipped cream, glitter, feathers... Not even Gibbs was safe, so yeah. What DiNozzo did to his probie's was very tame.

"And it all stopped the moment Gibbs finally figured it out." Another older agent came up behind them all, smirking.

"Figured what out?" McGee asked slowly.

"That everytime he called DiNozzo 'Probie', something would happen in the building. Nobody could ever catch him at it, but most of us worked out what was going on after a while. Eventually... Gibbs caught on and made a deal with Tony here." Balboa slung an arm around Tony's shoulders, who merely rolled his eyes.

"A deal for what?" Ziva asked, confused.

"He behaves himself with the pranks, and I don't call him 'Probie' any more." Gibbs said suddenly from behind them, causing them both to jump.

"But... he doesn't behave himself, he pranks us every day, so he's broken his side of the deal." Ziva said, desperately trying to get Tony to stop calling her 'Probie'.

Gibbs shook his head. "And he's very well behaved about them, too. As far as I'm concerned, he's held up his end of the deal nicely." He quirked a grin at Tony, who beamed back.

"Back to work, Probies." Gibbs said after a moment, sitting down at his desk, and smirking when he heard their quiet groans.

He stiffened slightly when Tony leaned over his shoulder to mutter in his ear. "Only I can call my probies that." He gave Gibbs a narrowed eye look of warning before going back to what he was doing before Tim confronted him.

Ten minutes later, he smirked when his computer started malfunctioning on him, a glance in McGee's direction let him know who was doing it, and his smirk widened when he pulled out a flashdrive and plugged it in, letting the program on it take care of the problem for him. Thank you, Abby.

Tim groaned when it became apparent that it failed.

Better luck next time, Probie.


	19. First Impressions

Gibbs was not impressed.

He'd heard plenty over the years about DiNozzo Sr. He'd heard all about him from his second-in-command. But he also knew that Tony hadn't seen his father in years, and what he remembered was sure to be (to an extent) colored by a child/teenager's perspective. No matter how intelligent Tony was.

But being told that he (Sr.) was the _real _Tony DiNozzo? What did that make his Tony? A robot of some kind?

He was not at all impressed by how Sr. repeatedly tried to run rings around him, although he now knew where Tony got it. Did this man think he was an idiot? Sr. wasn't going to be able to deflect with him like he would be able to with others.

And he watched as Tony repeatedly told his father to stay out of their way, and to stay away from the royal family. DiNozzo Sr. clearly didn't listen to anybody, especially not his son. Tony appeared unable to keep anything from his father, likewise.

He wasn't sure what had prompted him to speak with Sr. on Tony's behalf. But, he also knew that no matter how much he despised the way Sr. treated his son, Gibbs' friend, he knew that Sr. had a chance that he never got to have with Kelly. He thought he got through to the man, but he wasn't so sure. The man was just as closed off as Tony had been when he first met him in Baltimore. He'd gotten through Tony's walls to see behind the mask, but he didn't know if he really wanted to make the effort with Sr.

He spoke the truth when he said he wondered where Sr. had been when Tony had the plague, and felt like throwing him out the window when Sr. said that Tony never told him, never called. Because _he _had tried to call, the _hospital_ had tried to call. People tried to get in touch with him to tell him his son was deathly ill and might not make it, no matter how confident Gibbs was that Tony was a fighter and a survivor. He never picked up the phone and answered their messages, or came to the hospital to see his son.

He didn't like how distracted Tony was during the case, in fact, he'd been distracted ever since his father showed up.

He saw, however, how taken by him the rest of the team was, and he saw the discomfort on Tony's face whenever he saw Abby or Ziva on his arm, or whenever he saw his father start flirting with one of them. Understandable, really... especially considering what he knew about Sr.'s marriage history while Tony was growing up.

And then to be told that his father came to town right when his father was truly broke... which just so happened to coincide with when Tony was trying to access his rather healthy trust fund...

No, he was not impressed at all.

He wasn't at all surprised when Tony showed up at his house not long after his father left. He didn't even hesitate to split his steak in half for him.


End file.
